Dietary Long-Chain Fatty Acids and Cognitive Performance in Older Australian Adults

Convincing evidence exists for the positive effect of an improvement in diet quality on age-related cognitive decline, in part due to dietary fatty acid intake. A cross-sectional analysis of data from the Hunter Community Study (HCS) (n = 2750) was conducted comparing dietary data from a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) with validated cognitive performance measures, Audio Recorded Cognitive Screen (ARCS) and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Adjusted linear regression analysis found statistically significant associations between dietary intake of total n-6 fatty acids (FA), but no other FAs, and better cognitive performance as measured by the ARCS (RC = 0.0043; p = 0.0004; R² = 0.0084). Multivariate regression analyses of n-6 FA intakes in quartiles showed that, compared with the lowest quartile (179.8⁻1150.3 mg), those in the highest quartile (2315.0⁻7449.4 mg) had a total ARCS score 2.1 units greater (RC = 10.60466; p = 0.006; R² = 0.0081). Furthermore, when n-6 FA intake was tested against each of the ARCS domains, statistically significant associations were observed for the Fluency (RC = 0.0011432; p = 0.007; R² = 0.0057), Visual (RC = 0.0009889; p = 0.034; R² = 0.0050), Language (RC = 0.0010651; p = 0.047; R² = 0.0068) and Attention (RC = 0.0011605; p = 0.017; R² = 0.0099) domains, yet there was no association with Memory (RC = -0.000064; p = 0.889; R² = 0.0083). No statistically significant associations were observed between FA intakes and MMSE. A higher intake of total n-6 FA, but not other types of FA, was associated with better cognitive performance among a representative sample of older aged Australian adults.