3 ms·

If this is true they already have several big patient groups taking it on a daily basis for the rest of their life so should be possible to look at if the preva

If this is true they already have several big patient groups taking it on a daily basis for the rest of their life so should be possible to look at if the prevalence of Alzheimers is lower in those groups.

jeffbee 4y ago
It seems like researchers would be able to gather data from the natural experiment due to some places in the world where this drug is routinely used against malaria.
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  I can see an awful lot of potential confounding factors there, though. Life expectancy in most countries in Africa, for instance, isn't even long enough for non-early onset AD to develop. You'd expect less AD just because half or more of the population is going to die from other stuff at 65 or earlier. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1218173/life-expectancy-in-african-countries/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1218173/life-expectancy-...
fbdab103 4y ago
From reading the abstract, it looks like they picked up on this association from arthritis patients.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  That makes me instantly sceptical that the arthritis and/or associated conditions might have played a role. I'm sure they've controlled for that as much as possible, but it's easy to miss some confounding factor since the cause and mechanism of AD is poorly understood. That makes it harder to tease out what confounders to look for.