Association between neurodegenerative diseases and pneumonia: a retrospective population-based study

AbstractPurpose: The association between pneumonia and neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) has never been reported in detail. We address this relationship with reference to the general population.Methods: Using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database to identify a pneumonia cohort (including the typical and atypical), we established an ND cohort of 19,062 patients and a non-ND cohort of 76,227 people. In both cohorts, the risk of pneumonia was measured using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models.Results: The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) for the pneumonia cohort was 2.10 (1.96–2.24), regardless of age, sex, comorbidities or drug use in the ND cohort. The aHR (95% CI) for adults aged 20–49 years was 2.08 (1.58–2.75), men 2.20 (2.01–2.40). However, older subjects were at greatest risk of pneumonia, (3.41 [2.99–3.88]) if the 20–49 years age group is used as the reference. For the ND and non-ND cohorts, those with comorbidities (with the exception of hyperlipidem...