Prospective study of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension– and Mediterranean-style dietary patterns and age-related cognitive change: the Cache County Study on Memory, Health and Aging123

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ABSTRACT

Background:

Healthy dietary patterns may protect against age-related cognitive decline, but results of studies have been inconsistent.

Objective:

We examined associations between Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)– and Mediterranean-style dietary patterns and age-related cognitive change in a prospective, population-based study.

Design:

Participants included 3831 men and women ≥65 y of age who were residents of Cache County, UT, in 1995. Cognitive function was assessed by using the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) ≤4 times over 11 y. Diet-adherence scores were computed by summing across the energy-adjusted rank-order of individual food and nutrient components and categorizing participants into quintiles of the distribution of the diet accordance score. Mixed-effects repeated-measures models were used to examine 3MS scores over time across increasing quintiles of dietary accordance scores and individual food components that comprised each score.

Results:

The range of rank-order DASH and Mediterranean diet scores was 1661–25,596 and 2407–26,947, respectively. Higher DASH and Mediterranean diet scores were associated with higher average 3MS scores. People in quintile 5 of DASH averaged 0.97 points higher than those in quintile 1 (P = 0.001). The corresponding difference for Mediterranean quintiles was 0.94 (P = 0.001). These differences were consistent over 11 y. Higher intakes of whole grains and nuts and legumes were also associated with higher average 3MS scores [mean quintile 5 compared with 1 differences: 1.19 (P < 0.001), 1.22 (P < 0.001), respectively].

Conclusions:

Higher levels of accordance with both the DASH and Mediterranean dietary patterns were associated with consistently higher levels of cognitive function in elderly men and women over an 11-y period. Whole grains and nuts and legumes were positively associated with higher cognitive functions and may be core neuroprotective foods common to various healthy plant-centered diets around the globe.

Cited by (0)

1

From the Departments of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences (HW and RGM), Psychology (JTT), Family Consumer and Human Development (MCN), and Mathematics and Statistics (AC, AQ, AB, and CC) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies (HW, RGM, CC, JTT, and MCN), Utah State University, Logan, UT, and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (KAW-B).

2

Supported by the NIH (grants R01-AG-11380 and R15-AG-037392), the General Mills Bell Institute of Health, and the Agriculture Experiment Station at Utah State University.

3

Address reprint requests and correspondence to H Wengreen, 750North 1200 East, Logan, UT. E-mail: [email protected].

4

Abbreviations used: AD, Alzheimer disease; CCMS, Cache County Memory Study; DASH, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension; FFQ, food-frequency questionnaire; 3MS, Modified Mini-Mental State Examination.