The findings, led by scientists from the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, showed that the risk of dementia was higher in people born with heart defects who developed other heart disease risk factors later in life, such as atrial fibrillation, heart failure and diabetes.
For these people, the risk of dementia from any cause, including vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and others, was 60% higher overall than the general population.
They were also 160% (2.6 times) at higher risk of developing early-onset dementia before age 65 and 30% higher risk for dementia after age 65, said the researchers in a paper published in the Journal Circulation.
“Previous studies showed that people born with heart defects have a higher risk of neuro-developmental problems in childhood, such as epilepsy and autism, but this is, to our knowledge, the first study to examine the potential for dementia later in adult life,” said lead author Carina N Bagge.
For the study, the team examined the occurrence of dementia in 10,632 individuals (46% male) born with heart defects, matching each with 10 members of the general population.
The researchers found that a person born with a heart defect will develop dementia.