Does shingles vaccination cut dementia risk? Large study hints at a link

06 June 2023 by Sara Reardon

Analysis of nearly 300,000 people finds an association between the shingles jab and a lower rate of dementia — but questions linger.

Vaccination against shingles might also prevent dementia, such as that caused by Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study of health records from around 300,000 people in Wales. The analysis found that getting the vaccine lowers the risk of dementia by 20%. But some puzzling aspects of the analysis have stirred debate about the work’s robustness.

The study was published on the medRxiv preprint server on 25 May and has not yet been peer reviewed.

“If it is true, it’s huge,” says Alberto Ascherio, an epidemiologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. “Even a modest reduction in risk is a tremendous impact.”