No Association between Dietary Patterns and Risk for Cognitive Decline in Older Women with 9-Year Follow-Up: Data from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study

Abstract

Background Data on the association between dietary patterns and age-related cognitive decline are inconsistent. Objective To determine whether dietary patterns assessed by the alternate Mediterranean diet score (aMED), the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2010, the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) 2010 or the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet score are associated with cognitive decline in older women. To examine if dietary patterns modify the risk for cognitive decline in hypertensive women. Design Prospective, longitudinal cohort study. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were used to derive dietary patterns at baseline. Hypertension was defined as self-report of current drug therapy for hypertension or clinic measurement of SBP ≥ 140mmHg or DBP ≥ 90mmHg. Participants/setting Postmenopausal women (N=6,425) aged 65 to 79 years who participated in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) and were cognitively intact at baseline. Main Outcome Measures Cognitive decline was defined as cases of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or probable dementia (PD). Cases were identified through rigorous screening and expert adjudication. Statistical Analyses performed Cox proportional hazards models with multivariable adjustment were used to estimate the relative risk for developing MCI or PD. Results During a median follow-up of 9.11 years, we documented 499 cases of MCI and 390 of PD. In multivariable analyses we did not detect any statistically significant relationships across quintiles of aMED, HEI-2010, DASH and AHEI-2010 scores and MCI or PD (ptrend=0.30, 0.44, 0.23 and 0.45). In hypertensive women we found no significant association between dietary patterns and cognitive decline (ptrend=0.19, 0.08, 0.07 and 0.60). Conclusions Dietary patterns characterized by the aMED, HEI-2010, AHEI-2010 or DASH dietary score were not associated with cognitive decline in older women. Adherence to a healthy dietary pattern did not modify the risk for cognitive decline in hypertensive women.

Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of developing cognitive disorders: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

“…Next, 307 of the 333 articles were excluded after reading the titles and abstracts, and the remaining 26 full-text articles were estimated for eligibility. Finally, 9 articles were included in the present systematic review and meta-analysis131415161718192021. Reasons for the exclusion of the 17 articles were listed in Supplementary Table 4.…”

“…The 9 articles were published between 2002 and 2016. Six of the included studies were performed in the United States131416192021 and the other 3 studies were performed in Australia, France and Sweden, respectively151718. The years of follow-up duration ranged between 2.2 and 12.…”

“…Mediterranean diet (characterizes by a high consumption of fruit, vegetables, legumes, cereals, and unsaturated fatty acids; low consumption of meat and saturated fatty acids; low to moderate consumption of dairy products; moderate to high consumption of fish; and a regular but moderate drinking of alcohol) is reported to have a protective effect of cognitive decline in a substantial number of qualitative researches5678 and quantitative reviews9101112. Recently, 4 cohort studies have been published on this topic, and these high-quality articles included an additional 25,864 participants13141516. However, the findings of the 4 studies were inconsistent, and 2 of these studies observed a non-significant association between Mediterranean diet and cognitive disorders1315.…”

“…Recently, 4 cohort studies have been published on this topic, and these high-quality articles included an additional 25,864 participants13141516. However, the findings of the 4 studies were inconsistent, and 2 of these studies observed a non-significant association between Mediterranean diet and cognitive disorders1315. With the accumulating evidence, we therefore performed an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies to assess the influence of adherence to Mediterranean diet in the risk of developing cognitive disorders (including mild cognitive impairment, AD, and dementia).…”

The association between an inflammatory diet and global cognitive function and incident dementia in older women: The Women's Health Initiative Memory Study

“…Inconsistencies could be due to differences in study populations, methodologies, or dietary scoring methods [53,54]. The most recent null finding came from another analysis from the WHIMS, using essentially the same sample and FFQ data as those used in the present study [55]. The study found no association between cognitive decline and healthy dietary patterns including the alternate Mediterranean dietary score, the Healthy Eating Index 2010 [56,57], the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 [58,59], and the DASH diet [60,61].…”