Association of Dietary Patterns With Global and Domain-Specific Cognitive Decline in Chinese Elderly

Significant differences exist between eastern and western diets, and the way in which Chinese dietary intake relates to specific cognitive domains remains unclear. We aimed to assess the association between dietary patterns (DPs) and cognitive decline in Chinese elderly.

Participants were recruited from the elderly health checkup program of a teaching hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.

A total of 475 elders (age ≥65) were included in this prospective cohort study.

The outcome comprised the decline of global and domain-specific cognition between baseline (2011-2013) and follow-up (2013-2015). Dietary data from the previous year were collected via a food frequency questionnaire at baseline, and a factor analysis was performed to identify DPs. Multivariable linear regression and logistic regression models were used to assess associations between Chinese DPs and cognitive decline over 2 years adjusting for selected covariates.

Three DPs (vegetable, meat, and traditional) were identified. Moderate- or high-score "vegetable" DP significantly protected against decline of logical memory (recall I: β = 0.16-0.18, odds ratio (OR) = 0.42-0.48; recall II: β = 0.17-0.21); while high-score DP increased executive function decline (β = -0.22). A high-score "meat" DP was related to decline of verbal fluency-total score (β = -0.19); while moderate- or high-score "meat" DP protected against attention decline (β = 0.20-0.22). High-score "traditional" DP protected against decline of logical memory-recall I (β = 0.18). No significant association was observed for global cognition.

These findings suggest that three DPs identified in Chinese elderly were associated with different cognitive domains. Further research is needed to explore the efficacy of dietary interventions in reducing cognitive decline in older adults.