Risk factors for dementia in the context of cardiovascular disease: A protocol of an overview of reviews

BACKGROUND: Dementia is a major public health priority. Although there is abundant evidence of an association between dementia and poor cardiovascular health, findings have been inconsistent and uncertain in identifying which factors increase dementia risk in those with cardiovascular disease. Indeed, multiple variables including sociodemographic, economic, health, lifestyle and education may indicate who is at higher vs. lower dementia risk and could be used in prediction modelling. Therefore, the aim of this review is to synthesise evidence on the key risk factors for dementia in those with a history of cardiovascular disease. METHODS: This is an overview of reviews protocol, registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021265363). Four electronic databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews will be searched. Studies will be included if they are systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses that have investigated the risk of incident dementia (all-cause and subtypes including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia) in people with a history of coronary heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, and vascular stiffness. Study selection will be completed by two independent researchers according to the eligibility criteria, and conflicts resolved by a third reviewer. References will be exported into Covidence for title and abstract sifting, full-text review, and data extraction. Methodological quality will be assessed using the AMSTAR-2 criteria and confidence of evidence will be assessed using the GRADE classification. This overview of reviews will follow PRISMA guidelines. If there is sufficient homogeneity in the data, the results will be pooled, and a meta-analysis conducted to determine the strength of association between each risk factor and incident all-cause dementia and its subtypes for each cardiovascular diagnoses separately. DISCUSSION: We will create a comprehensive summary of the key risk factors linking cardiovascular diseases to risk of incident dementia. This knowledge is essential for informing risk predictive model development as well as the development of risk reduction and prevention strategies.