Dietary Diversity and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Middle-Aged and Older Chinese People: A Cross-Sectional Study

Qing Xiao; Yonggang Li; Benchao Li; Tingting Li; Fengping Li; Yuanyuan Li; Liangkai Chen; Zhuangju Zhao; Qing Wang; Shuang Rong

doi:10.3233/ADR-230060

Dietary Diversity and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Middle-Aged and Older Chinese People: A Cross-Sectional Study

J Alzheimers Dis Rep. 2023 Sep 19;7(1):1045-1053. doi: 10.3233/ADR-230060. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qing Xiao¹, Yonggang Li², Benchao Li¹, Tingting Li¹, Fengping Li³, Yuanyuan Li³, Liangkai Chen⁴, Zhuangju Zhao¹, Qing Wang¹, Shuang Rong^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Academy of Nutrition and Health, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, School of Public Health, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory for Applied Toxicology, Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wuhan, China.
³ Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Wuhan University, Research Center of Public Health, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
⁴ Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Hubei Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Background: The evidence concerning dietary diversity and cognitive function remains insufficient.

Objective: To investigate the association of dietary diversity score (DDS) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitive performance in different domains.

Methods: Data from The Lifestyle and Healthy Aging of Chinese Square Dancer Study was used in this study. DDS was constructed based on the intake frequencies of 9 food groups assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire. MCI was diagnosed by Petersen's criteria. A neuropsychological test battery was used to assess the performance on cognitive domains, and test scores were standardized to Z scores. Multiple linear regression models and logistic regression models were used to estimate the β and odds ratios and their 95% CIs, respectively.

Results: Among 1,982 participants, the mean (SD) age was 63.37 (5.00) years, 1,778 (89.71%) were women, and 279 (14.08%) had MCI. Compared to the DDS quartile (0, 6], the multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) were 0.74 (0.48, 1.15) for DDS quartile (6, 7], 0.65 (0.43, 0.97) for DDS quartile (7, 8], and 0.55 (0.37, 0.84) for DDS quartile (8, 9]. Furthermore, higher DDS was positively associated with better performance of cognitive domains, including global cognitive function (β= 0.20, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.30), episodic memory (β= 0.21, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.35), attention (β= 0.15, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.26), language fluency (β= 0.24, 95% CI: 0.10, 0.38), and executive function (β= - 0.24, 95% CI: - 0.38, - 0.10).

Conclusions: This study indicated that higher DDS was associated with better cognitive function among middle-aged and older Chinese people.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; cognitive domains; cross-sectional study; dietary diversity; mild cognitive impairment.