PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Suhail Ismail Shiekh
AU  - Harriet Forbes
AU  - Rohini Mathur
AU  - Liam Smeeth
AU  - Neil Pearce
AU  - Charlotte Warren-Gash
TI  - Ethnicity and risk of diagnosed dementia after stroke: a cohort study using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink
AID  - 10.1136/jech-2019-212825
DP  - 2019 Nov 07
TA  - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
PG  - jech-2019-212825
4099  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2019/11/07/jech-2019-212825.short
4100  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2019/11/07/jech-2019-212825.full
AB  - Introduction The UK has over 1.2 million stroke survivors. Stroke is a major risk factor for dementia, and along with other risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes, is more common among Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities (BAME). We aimed to explore whether diagnosed dementia differed by ethnicity among adult stroke survivors.Methodology Using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink and linked hospital data, we conducted a cohort study among patients aged ≥40 years who had an incident stroke between 2005 and 2016. We fitted multivariable Cox proportional hazard models to estimate ethnic differences in the risk of poststroke dementia, adjusting for major clinical and social confounders.Results Our cohort comprised 45 474 stroke survivors (mean age 72.6 years, 49% female), of whom 95.7% were White, 2.0% South Asian, 1.2% Black and 1.1% of Mixed/Other ethnicity. Of these, 4624 (10.2%) were diagnosed with poststroke dementia over a median follow-up of 3.26 years. Compared with the White ethnic group, those of Black ethnicity were 42% more likely to be diagnosed with dementia (adjusted HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.93). There was no association between any other ethnic group and poststroke dementia diagnosis.Discussion There was good evidence that those of Black ethnicity had higher risk of diagnosed dementia poststroke. Further understanding of the mechanisms of this relationship could help target interventions at communities most at risk of dementia poststroke.