It is by now established that women have a higher prevalence than men in developing dementia. One factor for this difference in prevalence is that menopausal changes in women increase their risk for developing dementia later on in life. Not surprisingly, several clinical trials have therefore explored if hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women might reduce their risk for dementia. However, results of the trials have been inconsistent. A potential reason for this inconsistency is that women were treated regardless of their genetic risk (APOE) of developing dementia, with some animal findings suggesting that only females not at increased genetic risk of dementia will benefit from HRT. The current study will explore this potential link by making use of the the UK Biobank cohort which has existing data on menopause, HRT use, APOE genotype and cognitive performance. More specifically, we will investigate how cognitive performance, as a marker of dementia risk, varies as a function of HRT use and APOE genetic risk. The results of this study will inform a more personalise approach towards HRT use for dementia risk reduction in women in the future.
