Chronic exposure to aluminum and risk of Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analysis. (1st January 2016) - Wang, Zengjin
Highlights: This meta-analysis included 8 cohort and case control studies, with a total of 10567 individuals. Two main types of chronic Al exposure are reported: Al in drinking water and occupational exposure. This meta-analysis shows that chronic Al exposure is associated with 71% increased risk of AD. Abstract: A meta-analysis was performed to investigate whether chronic exposure to aluminum (Al) is associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Eight cohort and case-control studies (with a total of 10567 individuals) that met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis were selected after a thorough literature review of PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Elsevier ScienceDirect and Springer databases up to June, 2015. The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of included studies. Q test and I 2 statistic were used to examine heterogeneity between selected studies. The overall odds ratio (OR) was calculated using a fixed-effect model because no significant heterogeneity between studies was found. No publication bias was observed based on a funnel plot and Egger's test. Results showed that individuals chronically exposed to Al were 71% more likely to develop AD (OR: 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.35–2.18). The finding suggests that chronic Al exposure is associated with increased risk of AD.