Female Reproductive Period Length, Parity and Hormonal Replacement Therapy and Dementia: The Elsi-Brazil Study

Abstract

Introduction

Alzheimer's disease and other dementia have a higher incidence among women and that risk factors specific to the female sex could be involved. Few studies looked into female reproductive factors and their association with dementia in low-and middle-income countries.

Materials and Methods

We analyzed the baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) and included data from 2594 women aged 60 years and older. We used an algorithm approach to determine dementia status and performed logistic regressions using as predictors the self-reported total length of the reproductive period, total parity and use of hormonal replacement therapy. We also analyzed the effects of hormonal replacement therapy use for different age groups and the effects of number of living children.

Results

Reproductive period length, hormonal replacement therapy use and parity as a continuous measure were not significantly associated with dementia status. When compared with 0 births, the group with 5–8 had more dementia while the other groups displayed no differences. For the number of living children, but a higher occurrence of dementia was found among women with more children.

Conclusions

We did not find any association between continuous parity, reproductive period length or hormonal replacement therapy use and dementia. Social factors of motherhood appear to play an important role, and group specific effects of parity and hormonal replacement therapy require further study.