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Session: Nutritional Neuroscience: Nutritional Effects on Cognition and Disease Severity Across the Lifespan (Oral 32)

(OR32-04-24) Association Between Dietary Fat Intake and Risk of Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

8:36 AM – 8:48 AM CT

Location: W375A

Presenting Author(s)

MW

Minyu Wu, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow
School of Public Health of Zhejiang University, China (People's Republic)

Disclosure information not submitted.

Co-Author(s)

Liyan Huang

School of Public Health, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China (People's Republic)
YH

Yuhui Huang

Zhejiang University, China (People's Republic)
JS

Jie Shen, Female

PhD student
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China (People's Republic)
Hui Chen, PhD Candidate (he/him/his)

PhD Candidate
School of Public Health, Zhejiang University School of Medicine
Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
GZ

Geng Zong

CAS Key Laboratory of Nutrition, Metabolism and Food Safety, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai
SR

Shuang Rong

Wuhan University
Xiaoran Liu, PhD

Assistant Professor
Rush University
Chicago, Illinois, United States
CY

Changzheng Yuan, ScD

School of Public Health, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou

Objectives: Evidence on the association between dietary fat intake and dementia remains limited. This study examined the prospective associations of dietary intake of total fat and specific fatty acids with incident dementia among middle-aged and older adults in the United States.

Methods: In the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), 6163 participants (58.3% women; mean [SD] age, 69.6 [9.8] years) who were free from dementia at baseline in 2014 were followed-up to 6 years (mean = 4.7 years). Dietary fat and fatty acids intake were assessed and calculated from the 168-item food frequency questionnaire. Incident dementia was ascertained using the Langa-Weir classification strategy based on the self-respondent interview or cognitive disability assessed by a proxy respondent. Cox-proportional hazard model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results: A total of 435 dementia cases were identified during follow-up. The highest quintile of total unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) intake was significantly associated with a lower risk of dementia (HR_{Q5 vs. Q1}: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.48-0.92; p-trend = 0.03), compared with the lowest quintile. When substituting 5% energy from carbohydrates for the equivalent percentage of energy from each type of fat, the fat from vegetables (VFAT) (HR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.81-0.99), UFA (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.71-0.94), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (HR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.55-0.97) were significantly associated with a lower risk of dementia, while saturated fatty acid (SFA) was associated with a higher risk of dementia (HR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.02-1.68). Substituting 5% energy from the fat from animals (AFAT) with an equivalent percentage of energy from VFAT was also associated with a lower risk of dementia (HR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.77-0.99). Similar results were observed when substituting the equivalent energy of SFA with MUFA (HR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.35-0.89), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (HR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.51-0.97), and UFA (HR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.49-0.88).

Conclusions: This study demonstrated the heterogeneous associations of different sources of fat and types of fatty acids with dementia, underscoring the potential beneficial roles of VFAT and UFA in preventing dementia.

Funding Sources: No external funding was received for this study.