Review criteria
The inclusion criteria were: i) patients with AF who were ≥ 18 years; ii) investigating the effects of OACs on the incidence of dementia; iii) reporting the outcomes as HR, RR, or OR, with 95%CIs; iv) RCTs or observational studies.
The exclusion criteria were: i) patients with the history of dementia or moderate to severe cognitive dysfunction; ii) only crude or unadjusted HR, RR, or OR; iii) cross-sectional studies; iv) following types of articles: conference abstracts, editorials, letters, expert opinions, case reports, case series, or reviews.