Association of direct oral anticoagulants and warfarin with incidence of dementia in atrial fibrillation patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objects: To evaluate the association of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) and warfarin with dementia incidence in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. Methods: Relevant studies were retrieved in databases including Embase, PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Knowledge, and ClinicalTrials.gov. Meta-analysis was then conducted using Stata 12.0 software. Results: A total of 9 studies involving 447,644 AF patients were included. The results indicated that AF patients treated with DOACs had a lower incidence of dementia compared to those treated with warfarin (RR: 0.692, 95 % CI: 0.603–0.793, P = 0.000), This trend was observed in both age groups,