Research Article Association between Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases and the Risk of Dementia Kang Lu,1,2 Hao-Kuang Wang,1,3 Chih-Ching Yeh,4,5 Chih-Yuan Huang,3,6 Pi-Shan Sung,3,7 Liang-Chao Wang,3,6 Chih-Hsin Muo,8 Fung-Chang Sung,5

Copyright © 2014 Kang Lu et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Aim. Autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD) are characterized by systemic inflammation andmay affectmultiple organs and cause vascular events such as ischemic stroke and acute myocardial infarction. However, the association between ARD and increased risk of dementia is uncertain. This is a retrospective cohort study to investigate and compare the risk of dementia between patients clinically diagnosed with ARD and non-ARD patients during a 5-year follow-up period. Methods. Data were obtained from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000).We included 1221 patients receiving ambulatory or hospitalization care and 6105 non-ARD patients; patients were matched by sex, age, and the year of index use of health care. Each patient was studie