Background and Objectives Use of OTC laxatives is common in the general population. The microbiome-gut-brain axis hypothesis suggests use of laxatives is associated with dementia. We aimed to examine the association between regular use of laxatives and incidence of dementia in UK Biobank participants.
Methods This prospective cohort study was based on UK Biobank participants aged 40 to 69 years without history of dementia. Regular use of laxatives was defined as self-reported use in most days of the week for the last 4 weeks at baseline (2006-2010). The outcomes were all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, identified from linked hospital admissions or death register (up to 2020). Socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, medical conditions, family history and regular medication use were adjusted for in the multivariable Cox regression analyses.
Results Among the 502,229 participants with a mean age of 56.5 (SD=8.1) at baseline, 273,251 (54.4%) were female, and 18,235 (3.6%)…
