The adjusted impact of different severities of acute exacerbations and medications on the risk of developing dementia in COPD patients

Table 1 Characteristics and baseline comorbidities among patients with COPD and controls

	COPD group (n = 51,318)		Control group (n = 51,318)
	No.	%	No.	%	p value
Sex					1.000
Male	25,835	50.3	25,835	50.3
Female	25,483	49.7	25,483	49.7
Age group (y/o)					1.000
< 30	12,493	24.3	12,493	24.3
30 to 50	21,958	42.8	21,958	42.8
51 to 70	12,666	24.7	12,666	24.7
> 70	4,201	8.2	4,201	8.2
The number of hospital visits during the follow-up period (mean ± SD)	14.6 ± 8.8		14.6 ± 8.8		1.000
Monthly income (USD$)^a					0.014
< 600	21,026	41.0	21,472	41.8
601 ~ 1000	21,073	41.1	20,847	40.6
> 1000	9,219	18.0	8,999	17.5
Baseline comorbidities
Diabetes mellitus ^a	3,607	7.0	3,246	6.3	< 0.001
Hypertension ^a	6,732	13.1	5,617	10.9	< 0.001
Renal failure ^a	498	1.0	377	0.7	< 0.001
Liver cirrhosis ^a	368	0.7	244	0.5	< 0.001
Stroke ^a	735	1.4	549	1.1	< 0.001
Osteoporosis ^a	1,359	2.6	1,079	2.1	< 0.001
AEs of COPD and admission to the ED	3,451	6.7	-	-
Severity of AEs of COPD
ED treatment only	2,003	57.9	-	-
Hospital admission	1,284	37.1	-	-
ICU admission	164	4.7	-	-
Short-term medications^b
Corticosteroids	3,427	6.7	-	-
Antibiotics	6,510	12.7	-	-
Bronchodilators	10,856	21.2	-	-
Long-term medications^c
Corticosteroids	7,066	13.8	-	-
Antibiotics	17,141	33.4	-	-
Bronchodilators	14,865	29.0	-	-

^aSignificant differences
^bShort-term treatment was defined as medication use for one month or less
^cLong-term treatment in this study was defined as continuous and regular medication use for over 1 month

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