Sex-specific associations between diabetes and dementia: the role of age at onset of disease, insulin use and complications

BACKGROUND: Whether the association of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) with dementia was differed by sex remains unclear, and the roles of age at onset of disease, insulin use and diabetes’ complications in their association are unknown. METHODS: This study analyzed data of 447 931 participants from the UK Biobank. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), and women-to-men ratio of HRs (RHR) for the association between T2DM and incident dementia [all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VD)]. The roles of age at onset of disease, insulin use and diabetes’ complications in their association were also analyzed. RESULTS: Compared to people with no diabetes at all, people with T2DM had increased risk of all-cause dementia (HR 2.85, 95% CI 2.56–3.17). The HRs between T2DM and AD were higher in women than men, with an RHR (95%CI) of 1.56 (1.20, 2.02). There was a trend that people who experienced T2DM before age 55 had higher risk of VD than those who had T2DM after age 55. In addition, there was a trend that T2DM had higher effect on VD that occurred before age 75 years than events that occurred after age 75. Patients with T2DM using insulin had higher risk of all-cause dementia than those without insulin, with an RHR (95%CI) of 1.54 (1.00–2.37). People with complications had doubled risk of all-cause dementia, AD and VD. CONCLUSIONS: Adopting a sex-sensitive strategy to address the risk of dementia in patients with T2DM is instrumental for a precision medicine approach. Meanwhile, it is warranted to consider patients' age at onset of T2DM, insulin use status and complications conditions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13293-023-00491-1.