A Bayesian Approach to Identifying New Risk Factors for Dementia: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

ABSTRACT: Dementia is one of the most disabling and burdensome health conditions worldwide. In this study, we identified new potential risk factors for dementia from nationwide longitudinal population-based data by using Bayesian statistics.We first tested the consistency of the results obtained using Bayesian statistics with those obtained using classical frequentist probability for 4 recognized risk factors for dementia, namely severe head injury, depression, diabetes mellitus, and vascular diseases. Then, we used Bayesian statistics to verify 2 new potential risk factors for dementia, namely hearing loss and senile cataract, determined from the Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database.We included a total of 6546 (6.0%) patients diagnosed with dementia. We observed older age, female se

SUBMITTER: Wen YH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4902349 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature