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Diet quality at midlife does not influence dementia risk

Patients’ diet quality during midlife was not significantly associated with a subsequent risk for dementia, according to findings recently published in JAMA.

“Observational studies suggest that diet is linked to cognitive health. However, the duration of follow-up in many studies is not sufficient to take into account the long preclinical phase of dementia, and the evidence from interventional studies is not conclusive,” Tasnime N. Akbaraly, PhD, of the Université Montpellier in France, and colleagues wrote.

Researchers used the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) to assess the diet quality of 8,225 patients (mean age, 50.2 years; 69.1%, men) three times from 1991 to 2004. Patients were followed for dementia incidence until March 31, 2017.

Researchers identified 344 cases of incident dementia during a median follow-up of 24.8 years. There was no significant difference found in the incidence rate for dementia in tertiles of AHEI exposure during the 13-year study period.

 

Patients’ diet quality during midlife was not significantly associated with a subsequent risk for dementia, according to findings recently published in JAMA.

Source:Adobe

“This finding was supported in the analyses with repeat assessments for diet to attenuate measurement error and account for long-term dietary exposure,” Akbaraly and colleagues wrote. “The present study suggested a slight decrease in diet quality in the years preceding dementia diagnosis, which also was reported in another study, and is compatible with the hypothesis that change in diet quality is a feature (among others) of preclinical dementia. This observation of a possible signal could be explored in further studies,” they added. – by Janel Miller

Disclosures: Akbaraly reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all the other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.