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6d ago

Shingles Shot Linked to Fewer MCI Cases and Lower Dementia Deaths in Welsh Study

Researchers leveraged Wales’ birth‑date cutoff as a natural experiment, with causality and applicability to Shingrix still unconfirmed.

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The shingles vaccine was not designed or optimized to prevent dementia, so the incidental finding that it might lower dementia risk has researchers cautiously optimistic. (Medical concept / Adobe Stock)

Overview

  • The Cell analysis exploited Wales’ 2013 shingles‑vaccine rollout and a Sept. 2, 1933 eligibility cutoff in SAIL records, extending earlier work that found about a 20% lower dementia incidence after vaccination.
  • Among 282,557 older adults without prior dementia, vaccination was associated with a 3.1 percentage‑point reduction in new mild cognitive impairment over nine years.
  • In a cohort of 14,350 people already diagnosed with dementia, dementia‑related mortality was 29.5% lower after vaccination over nine years, with an observed 22.7% reduction in all‑cause mortality.
  • Protective associations were strongest in women, which included larger reductions in mild cognitive impairment and dementia‑related deaths than those observed in men.
  • The analysis centers on the discontinued live‑attenuated Zostavax, and investigators and experts call for randomized trials and replication to test causality and to determine whether the current recombinant Shingrix confers similar benefits.