Acupuncture is associated with reduced dementia risk in patients with insomnia: A propensity-score-matched cohort study of real-world data

10.1016/j.jtcme.2023.02.003

Cheng-Hao Huang；Shun-Ku Lin；Mei-Chen Lin；Ching-Liang Hsieh

Acupuncture ； Insomnia ； Dementia ； National health insurance research database(NHIRD) ； Propensity score ； Cohort

Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine

13卷3期（2023 / 05 / 01）

297 - 305

英文

Background and aim: Insomnia is a subjective illness that has been identified as a risk factor for dementia. In this study, we investigated the association of acupuncture treatment for insomnia with the risk of dementia. We collected data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan to analyze the incidence of dementia in patients with insomnia who received acupuncture treatment. Experimental procedure: This retrospective matched-cohort study included 152,585 patients, selected from the NHIRD, who were newly diagnosed with insomnia between 2000 and 2010. The follow-up period ranged from the index date to the date of dementia diagnosis, date of withdrawal from the insurance program, or December 31, 2013. A 1:1 propensity score method was used to match an equal number of patients (N= 18,782) in the acupuncture and non-acupuncture cohorts. We employed Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate the risk of dementia. The cumulative incidence of dementia in both cohorts was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the difference between them was assessed through a log-rank test. Results and conclusion: Patients with insomnia who received acupuncture treatment were observed to have a lower risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.54, 95% confidence interval = 0.50-0.60) than those who did not undergo acupuncture treatment. The cumulative incidence of dementia was significantly lower in the acupuncture cohort than in the non-acupuncture cohort (log-rank test, p < 0.001). The results suggest that acupuncture treatment significantly reduced or slowed the development of dementia in patients with insomnia.

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