Exposure to lead and incidence of Alzheimer's disease and all-cause dementia in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Growing evidence suggests lead exposure may increase dementia risk, but evidence from human studies is limited. We investigated prospective associations between lead exposure and incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) and all-cause dementia in nationally-representative US populations.

Methods

Baseline measured blood lead and estimated patella and tibia lead from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)-III (1988-1994, blood n = 6,217, bone n = 5,865) and continuous NHANES (1999-2016, blood n = 8,038, bone n = 4,824) were linked to Medicare and the National Death Index for incident AD and all-cause dementia, with up to 30 years of follow-up. Survey-weighted Cox regressions estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Result

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12895363 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature