Long-term Dietary Flavonoid Intake and Subjective Cognitive Decline in US Men and Women

Tian-Shin Yeh; Changzheng Yuan; Alberto Ascherio; Bernard A Rosner; Walter C Willett; Deborah Blacker

doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000012454

Long-term Dietary Flavonoid Intake and Subjective Cognitive Decline in US Men and Women

Neurology. 2021 Sep 7;97(10):e1041-e1056. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000012454. Epub 2021 Jul 28.

Authors

Tian-Shin Yeh¹, Changzheng Yuan¹, Alberto Ascherio¹, Bernard A Rosner¹, Walter C Willett², Deborah Blacker¹

Affiliations

¹ From the Departments of Epidemiology (T.-S.Y., A.A., W.W., D.B.), Nutrition (T.-S.Y., A.A., W.W., C.Y.), and Biostatistics (B.R.), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University; Channing Division of Network Medicine (T.-S.Y., A.A., W.W., C.Y., B.R.), Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; School of Public Health (C.Y.), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Department of Medicine (B.R.), Harvard Medical School; and Department of Psychiatry (D.B.), Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
² From the Departments of Epidemiology (T.-S.Y., A.A., W.W., D.B.), Nutrition (T.-S.Y., A.A., W.W., C.Y.), and Biostatistics (B.R.), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University; Channing Division of Network Medicine (T.-S.Y., A.A., W.W., C.Y., B.R.), Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; School of Public Health (C.Y.), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Department of Medicine (B.R.), Harvard Medical School; and Department of Psychiatry (D.B.), Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. walter.willett@channing.harvard.edu.

Abstract

Objective: To prospectively examine the associations between long-term dietary flavonoids and subjective cognitive decline (SCD).

Methods: We followed 49,493 women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) (1984-2006) and 27,842 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) (1986-2002). Poisson regression was used to evaluate the associations between dietary flavonoids (flavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanins, polymeric flavonoids, and proanthocyanidins) and subsequent SCD. For the NHS, long-term average dietary intake was calculated from 7 repeated semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires (SFFQs), and SCD was assessed in 2012 and 2014. For the HPFS, average dietary intake was calculated from 5 repeated SFFQs, and SCD was assessed in 2008 and 2012.

Results: Higher intake of total flavonoids was associated with lower odds of SCD after adjustment for age, total energy intake, major nondietary factors, and specific dietary factors. In a comparison of the highest vs the lowest quintiles of total flavonoid intake, the pooled multivariable-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 3-unit increments in SCD was 0.81 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.76, 0.89). In the pooled results, the strongest associations were observed for flavones (OR 0.62 [95% CI 0.57, 0.68]), flavanones (0.64 [0.58, 0.68)]), and anthocyanins (0.76 [0.72, 0.84]) (p trend <0.001 for all groups). The dose-response curve was steepest for flavones, followed by anthocyanins. Many flavonoid-rich foods such as strawberries, oranges, grapefruits, citrus juices, apples/pears, celery, peppers, and bananas, were significantly associated with lower odds of SCD.

Conclusion: Our findings support a benefit of higher flavonoid intakes for maintaining cognitive function in US men and women.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Aged
Cognitive Dysfunction / epidemiology*
Diet Surveys
Diet*
Female
Flavonoids*
Humans
Male
United States

Substances

Flavonoids

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding