The association between Chronic Rhinosinusitis and the risk of Dementia: A longitudinal study

Xinyu Zhang¹Zhongmin Yin²Jia Luo¹Runsheng Yang¹Weijing Wang¹Dongfeng Zhang Zhang^1*

• ¹Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
• ²Department of Emergency Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

Background: Chronic inflammation status could increase the risk of dementia and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) could cause chronic inflammation status. Therefore, CRS may be associated with dementia and our aim was to investigate the association between CRS and dementia risk in the UK Biobank cohort. Materials and Methods: 364945 participants were included in this cohort study. CRS information was obtained from the first occurrence date of CRS (Field 131468) at baseline. Cox regression model and mediation analysis were performed to measure the association between CRS and dementia. Results: CRS was significantly associated with higher Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.04 - 1.71) and was not associated with all cause dementia risk (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.86 - 1.26) and vascular dementia (VD) risk (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.40 - 1.07). Male, participants with hypertension, former smokers, participants with under college education level and participants with mid standard polygenic risk Scores for Alzheimer's disease (PRS-AD) were more susceptible to AD. Mediation analysis using comprehensive inflammatory index showed that systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) could explain 0.0042 of this association. Conclusions: CRS may be associated with higher risk of AD, and the association was mediated in a very small part by SII.