The association of change in cognitive function with vaccination receipt

Project Summary

Based on the infectious hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease, a number of studies have looked at the associated increase in the risk of dementia following a number of different types of infections, in addition to the protective effect of vaccination for those infections. These studies almost exclusively use incident dementia as an outcome. However, this outcome is potentially limiting, as they are often reliant on administrative diagnoses and discount the potential gradient of cognitive functioning, especially in those individuals already with cognitive impairment. The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging contains both vaccination documentation (influenza, pneumococcal, and shingles) in addition to repeated tests of cognition, and we intend to measure whether those individuals who receive vaccines experience differing cognition trajectories than those who do not receive vaccinations.