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Meat consumption in midlife and risk of cognitive impairment in old age: the Singapore Chinese Health Study

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Abstract

Purpose

Epidemiological studies directly investigating the association between different types of meat intake and cognitive impairment are limited. We, therefore, examined this association in the Singapore Chinese Health Study.

Methods

In total, 16,948 participants were included in analysis. Diet was measured by a 165-item semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire at baseline (1993–1998) when participants were 45–74 years. Cognitive impairment was defined using a Singapore modified version of Mini-Mental State Examination during follow-up three visits (2014–2016) when participants were 61–96 years. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

Cognitive impairment was present in 2443 (14.4%) participants. Compared to the lowest quartile, the highest quartile of red meat intake was associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.01–1.32, P for trend = 0.009), while the corresponding value for poultry intake was 0.89 (95% CI 0.78–1.02, P for trend = 0.10). Higher fresh fish/shellfish was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.77–1.00, P for trend = 0.03), while preserved fish/shellfish intake was associated with a higher risk (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.04–1.36, P for trend = 0.01).

Conclusion

This study found that a higher intake of red meat in midlife was associated with increased likelihood of cognitive impairment in later life, while substitution of red meat intake with poultry or fresh fish/shellfish was associated with reduced risk.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Siew-Hong Low of the National University of Singapore for supervising the fieldwork of the Singapore Chinese Health Study and Renwei Wang for the maintenance of the cohort study database. Finally, we acknowledge the founding Principal Investigator of the Singapore Chinese Health Study, Mimi C. Yu.

Funding

The study was supported by Grants from the National Medical Research Council, Singapore (NMRC/CSA/0055/2013) and the National Institutes of Health (Grants R01 CA144034 and UM1 CA182876). An Pan is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0907504) and Hubei Province Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2018CFA033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Environment and Health and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Yi-Wen Jiang, Li-Ting Sheng, Xiong-Fei Pan & An Pan

  2. Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Lei Feng

  3. UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jian-Min Yuan

  4. Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jian-Min Yuan

  5. Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore

    Woon-Puay Koh

  6. Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore

    Woon-Puay Koh

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  1. Yi-Wen Jiang
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  2. Li-Ting Sheng
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  3. Xiong-Fei Pan
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  4. Lei Feng
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  5. Jian-Min Yuan
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  6. An Pan
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  7. Woon-Puay Koh
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Correspondence to An Pan or Woon-Puay Koh.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the National University of Singapore.

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Informed consent forms were obtained from all participants included in the study.

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Jiang, YW., Sheng, LT., Pan, XF. et al. Meat consumption in midlife and risk of cognitive impairment in old age: the Singapore Chinese Health Study. Eur J Nutr 59, 1729–1738 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-019-02031-3

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