Risk factors of male and female Alzheimer's disease patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms

•Risk factors in the population of AD patients with NPS.•Female ADNPS patients were associated with heart failure.•Male patients were associated with dyslipidemia, thyroid gland dysfunction, and cerebral infarction.•Clinical practice in the care of male and female ADNPS. This study investigates risk factors in the population of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients with NPS (ADNPS). Baseline risk factors associated with male and female ADNPS were examined using data from a regional AD care center. Univariate analysis was used to determine factors in male and female patients, while logistic regression models were developed to generate odds ratios (OR) to predict risk factors that are associated with male or female ADNPS. In the adjusted analysis, dyslipidemia (OR = 0.630, 95 % CI, 0.431–0.992, P = 0.017), thyroid dysfunction (OR = 0.549, 95 % CI, 0.377–0.798, P = 0.002), and cerebral infarction (OR = 0.684, 95 % CI, 0.472–0.991, P = 0.0085) were associated with male ADNPS patients, whereas chronic heart failure (OR = 1.408, 95 % CI, 0.953–2.079, P = 0.0085) was associated with female ADNPS patients. Our results reveal that female ADNPS patients were associated with heart failure, whereas male patients were associated with dyslipidemia and cerebral infarction.