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Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and Alzheimer's disease risk in an Australian population.

ABSTRACT: The Mediterranean diet (MeDi), due to its correlation with a low morbidity and mortality for many chronic diseases, has been widely recognised as a healthy eating model. We aimed to investigate, in a cross-sectional study, the association between adherence to a MeDi and risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in a large, elderly, Australian cohort. Subjects in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing cohort (723 healthy controls (HC), 98 MCI and 149 AD participants) completed the Cancer Council of Victoria Food Frequency Questionnaire. Adherence to the MeDi (0- to 9-point scale with higher scores indicating higher adherence) was the main predictor of AD and MCI status in multinominal logistic regression models that were adjusted for cohort age, sex, country of birth, education, apolipoprotein E genotype, total caloric intake, current smoking status, body mass index, history of diabetes, hypertension, angina, heart attack and stroke. There was a significant difference in adherence to the MeDi between HC and AD subjects (P < 0.001), and in adherence between HC and MCI subjects (P < 0.05). MeDi is associated with change in Mini-Mental State Examination score over an 18-month time period (P < 0.05) in HCs. We conclude that in this Australian cohort, AD and MCI participants had a lower adherence to the MeDi than HC participants.

SUBMITTER: Gardener S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3565821 | biostudies-other | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and Alzheimer's disease risk in an Australian population.

Gardener S S Gu Y Y Rainey-Smith S R SR Keogh J B JB Clifton P M PM Mathieson S L SL Taddei K K Mondal A A Ward V K VK Scarmeas N N Barnes M M Ellis K A KA Head R R Masters C L CL Ames D D Macaulay S L SL Rowe C C CC Szoeke C C Martins R N RN

Translational psychiatry 20121002

The Mediterranean diet (MeDi), due to its correlation with a low morbidity and mortality for many chronic diseases, has been widely recognised as a healthy eating model. We aimed to investigate, in a cross-sectional study, the association between adherence to a MeDi and risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in a large, elderly, Australian cohort. Subjects in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing cohort (723 healthy controls (HC), 98 MCI ...[more]

PMID: 23032941

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Project description:BackgroundAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by deficits in episodic memory. It is the most common form of dementia and affects 50-70% of patients with cognitive impairments over the age of 65. Elderly people are particularly susceptible to malnutrition and that risk is even higher in patients with AD. This study assessed the nutritional status of patients with AD at different stages of AD and explored how that status correlated with cognitive, functional and behavioural variables and caregiver overburden. The characteristics of the diet and the degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet were also analysed.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study that was representative of the general population and it was carried out in the Unit of Cognitive Disorders, Lleida, Spain. The participants were 111 subjects with AD who were aged 65 and over and still living at home. The subjects' nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and Controlling Nutritional Status system. The monthly food intake was estimated using the short Food Frequency Questionnaire and adherence to the Mediterranean diet was evaluated using the Mediterranean Diet Score. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Global Deterioration Scale, Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) were also used.ResultsWe found that 68% of the subjects presented with a risk of malnutrition and 19% were malnourished according to the MNA scale. Patients ate a higher quantity of meat and dairy products than recommended and fewer products from the remaining healthier food groups. Of the 111 subjects, 73% showed low adherence to the Mediterranean diet and 27% showed moderate adherence. There was a partial correlation between nutritional status and the MMSE when the data were adjusted for age and sex (r = 0, 318; p = 0.001) and inverse correlations were found for functional status (r = - 0.283; p = 0.004) and the NPI (r = - 0.409; p = 0.000) and ZBI scales (r = - 0.433; p = 0.000) when they were adjusted using the same variables. The ZBI scale (OR 1.08, 95% CI [1.01-1.15]) showed an increase in the risk of malnutrition in the multivariate analysis.DiscussionAlterations in nutritional status were more common during the advanced stages of AD and were also associated with behavioural changes and caregiver overburden. Low adherence to traditional healthy diets in Mediterranean countries and food intake profiles should be considered when managing patients with AD. Other countries can use the results to examine diets in people with AD that are high in meat and dairy and low in healthy food groups like fruit and vegetables.

Project description:Decades of research and experimental studies have investigated Huntington's disease (HD), a rare neurodegenerative disease. Similarly, several studies have investigated whether high/moderate adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and specific macro and micronutrients can decrease cognitive loss and provide a neuroprotective function to neurons. This review systematically identifies and examines studies that have investigated Mediterranean Diet adherence, micro- and macronutrients, supplementation and caloric intake in people with HD, in order to identify if dietary exposures resulted in improvement of disease symptoms, a delay in age of onset or if they contributed to an earlier age of onset in people with HD. A systematic search of PubMed, Directory of open access journal and HubMed was performed independently by two reviewers using specific search terms criteria for studies. The identified abstracts were screened and the studies were included in the review if they satisfied predetermined inclusion criteria. Reference screening of included studies was also performed. A total of 18 studies were included in the review. A few studies found that patients who had high/moderate adherence to Mediterranean Diet showed a slight improvement in their Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale and Total Functional Capacity. In addition, people with HD who had high Mediterranean Diet adherence showed an improvement in both cognitive and motor scores and had a better quality of life compared to patients who had low Mediterranean Diet adherence. Furthermore, a few studies showed that supplementation with specific nutrients, such as triheaptanoin, L-acetyl-carnitine and creatine, had no beneficial effect on the patients' Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale score. A few studies suggest that the Mediterranean Diet may confer a motor and cognitive benefit to people with HD. Unfortunately, there was little consistency among study findings. It is important for more research to be conducted to have a better understanding of which dietary exposures are beneficial and may result delaying age of onset or disease progression in people with HD.

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Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and Alzheimer's disease risk in an Australian population.

Publications

Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and Alzheimer's disease risk in an Australian population.

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