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Adherence to Mediterranean diet and subjective cognitive function in men

  • NEURO-EPIDEMIOLOGY
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Abstract

Benefits of a Mediterranean diet for cognition have been suggested, but epidemiologic studies have been relatively small and of limited duration. To prospectively assess the association between long-term adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern and self-reported subjective cognitive function (SCF). Prospective observational study. The Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study, a prospective cohort of 51,529 men, 40–75 years of age when enrolled in 1986, of whom 27,842 were included in the primary analysis. Mediterranean diet (MD) score, computed from the mean of five food frequency questionnaires, assessed every 4 years from 1986 to 2002. Self-reported SCF assessed by a 6-item questionnaire in 2008 and 2012, and validated by association with genetic variants in apolipoprotein-4. Using the average of 2008 and 2012 SCF scores, 38.0% of men were considered to have moderate memory scores and 7.3% were considered to have poor scores. In a multivariate model, compared with men having a MD score in the lowest quintile, those in the highest quintile had a 36% lower odds of a poor SCF score (odds ratio 0.64, 95% CI 0.55–0.75; P, trend < 0.001) and a 24% lower odds of a moderate SCF score (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.70–0.83; P, trend < 0.001). Both remote and more recent diet contributed to this relation. Associations were only slightly weaker using baseline dietary data and a lag of 22 years. Long-term adherence to the Mediterranean diet pattern was strongly related to lower subjective cognitive function. These findings provide further evidence that a healthy dietary pattern may prevent or delay cognitive decline.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (UM1CA167552) and an anonymous gift to the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health. The funding agencies had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Ambika Bhushan

  2. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Francine Grodstein

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Ambika Bhushan, Alberto Ascherio, Changzheng Yuan, Francine Grodstein & Walter Willett

  4. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Elinor Fondell, Alberto Ascherio, Changzheng Yuan & Walter Willett

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  1. Ambika Bhushan
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  2. Elinor Fondell
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  3. Alberto Ascherio
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  4. Changzheng Yuan
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  5. Francine Grodstein
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  6. Walter Willett
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Correspondence to Ambika Bhushan.

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Bhushan, A., Fondell, E., Ascherio, A. et al. Adherence to Mediterranean diet and subjective cognitive function in men. Eur J Epidemiol 33, 223–234 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-017-0330-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-017-0330-3

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