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Last Updated: Apr 16, 2008 - 5:52:06 PM |
WEDNESDAY April 16, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Hormone therapy using estrogen or estrogen plus progestin does not help reduce dementia risk, according to a new study.
Previous studies are inconsistent when it comes to how hormone therapy affects the risk of dementia, the study report says.
The study was conducted by Dr. Valerie Crooks, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, and colleagues and published in the March 15, 200 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Dr. Crooks and team followed 2,900 women aged at least 75 in Southern California from 1999 through 2003. Subjects were free of dementia when entering the study and tested for their thinking ability every year.
Among the women, 1500 used hormone therapy. Estrogen alone therapy had been used for an average of 30.5 years, starting at the age of 48.3 years while estrogen/progestin therapy had been used for 23.2 years, starting at the age 54.9 years.
During the follow-up, 283 women were diagnosed with dementia. When age, education, and self-reported medical history were considered, hormone use did not affect the dementia risk, the study found.
It was also determined, Crooks told Reuters Health, that hormone therapy offered no protection against dementia in women who started the therapy at or near menopause.
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