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Abstract
Objective: Dietary magnesium may be associated with a lower risk of dementia; however, the impact of magnesium oxide (MgO), a common laxative, on dementia has yet to be elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the association between the usage of MgO and the risk of developing dementia.
Methods: We used a dataset from the National Health Research Institute Database (NHRID) of Taiwan containing one million randomly sampled subjects to identify patients aged ≥50 years with no history of MgO usage. A total of 1547 patients who had used MgO were enrolled, along with 4641 controls who had not used the MgO propensity score matched by age, gender and comorbidity, at a ratio of 1:3. After adjusting for confounding risk factors, a Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare the risk of developing dementia during a 10 year follow-up period.
Results: Of the enrolled patients, 44 (2.84%) developed dementia, when compared to 199 (4.28%) in the control group. The Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that the patients who had used MgO were less likely to develop dementia with a crude hazard ratio of 0.617 (95% CI, 0.445–0.856, p = .004). After adjusting for age, gender, comorbidity, geographical area and urbanization level of residence, and monthly income, the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.517 (95% CI, 0.412–0.793, p = .001).
Conclusions: The patients who used MgO had a decreased risk of developing dementia. Further studies on the effects of MgO in reducing the risk of dementia are therefore warranted.
Transparency
Declaration of funding
This work was supported by the Tri-Service General Hospital Research Foundation under the grants TSGH-C105-003, TSGH-C105-130 and TSGH-C106-002.
Author contributions: N.S.T. and W.C.C. conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination, data interpretation and drafted the manuscript. C.H.C. and F.H.L. participated in the design of the study and participated in data interpretation. C.B.Y., S.Y.H., R.B.L., C.F.H., H.A.C., Y.C.K., Y.C.C., W.S.C., H.W.Y., Y.F.W. and C.H.T. participated in the design of the study, data interpretation and drafting of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Declaration of financial/other relationships
N.S.T. has disclosed that he is an active-duty Army lieutenant colonel in Taiwan's Army Medical Corps. F.H.L. have disclosed that he is an active-duty Army lieutenant colonels in Taiwan's Army Medical Service Corps. C.H.C. has disclosed that he is the secretary of the Taiwanese Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Association. Y.C.C. has disclosed that he is an active-duty Navy captain in Taiwan's Navy Medical Service Corps. C.B.Y. has disclosed that he is an active-duty Army colonel and flight surgeon in Taiwan's Army Medical Corps. S.Y.H. has disclosed that he is a retired Army colonel in Taiwan's Military Medical Corps. R.B.L. has disclosed that he is a retired Army colonel and in Taiwan's Army Medical Corps. H.A.C. has disclosed that he is an active-duty Navy lieutenant commander and flight surgeon in Taiwan's Navy Medical Corps. Y.C.K. has disclosed that he is an active-duty Air Force lieutenant colonel and flight surgeon in Taiwan's Air Force Medical Corps. W.C.C. has disclosed that he is a retired Army lieutenant colonel in Taiwan's Military Medical Service Corps. C.F.H. has disclosed that he is a retired Army colonel in Taiwan's Army Medical Service Corps. H.W.Y. has disclosed that she is a retired Army major in Taiwan's Army Nursing Corps. W.S.C. has disclosed that she is a PhD student in the Institute of Mathematics in Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. C.H.T. and Y.F.W. have disclosed that they are civilian researchers in the Department of Medical Research of Tre-Service General Hospital.
Acknowledgements
No assistance in the preparation of this article is to be declared.