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Quantity and variety of fruit and vegetable intake in midlife and cognitive impairment in late life: a prospective cohort study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Li-Ting Sheng
Affiliation:
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 Province 430030, People’s Republic of China The Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Gusu School, Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China
Yi-Wen Jiang
Affiliation:
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 Province 430030, People’s Republic of China
Derrick Johnston Alperet
Affiliation:
A*STAR Graduate Academy, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
Lei Feng
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
An Pan*
Affiliation:
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 Province 430030, People’s Republic of China Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China
Woon-Puay Koh*
Affiliation:
Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore
*
*Corresponding authors: A. Pan, email panan@hust.edu.cn; W-P. Koh, email kohwp@nus.edu.sg
*Corresponding authors: A. Pan, email panan@hust.edu.cn; W-P. Koh, email kohwp@nus.edu.sg
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Abstract

There is limited evidence on fruit and vegetable intake in relation to cognitive function. This study aimed to evaluate the associations of quantity and variety in fruit and vegetable intake in midlife with cognitive impairment in late life. We used data from 16 737 participants of the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a population-based cohort study. The participants provided dietary data at recruitment at median age of 52·5 (range: 45–74) years and also participated in the third follow-up interview 20 years later at median age of 72·2 (range: 61–96) years. Quantity and variety of fruits and vegetables consumed at baseline were measured using a validated FFQ. Cognitive impairment at the third follow-up was defined using a Singapore-modified version of Mini-Mental State Examination. About 14·3 % participants had cognitive impairment. In multivariable logistic regression models, comparing extreme quartiles for intake of fruits and vegetables combined, the OR (95 % CI) associated with cognitive impairment was 0·83 (95 % CI: 0·73, 0·95; P-trend = 0·006) for quantity and 0·76 (95 % CI: 0·67, 0·87; P-trend< 0·001) for variety scores. Independently, those with increased variety of fruit intake or higher quantity of vegetable intake also had significantly 22 % and 15 % reduced odds of cognitive impairment, respectively. Finally, compared with those with low intake for both quantity and variety, those with both high quantity and variety for fruits and vegetables had 23 % reduction in odds of cognitive impairment. In conclusion, increase in quantity and variety of fruits and vegetables in midlife may reduce the risk of cognitive impairment in late life.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Flow chart of the inclusion of participants in the analyses. aThe third follow-up was terminated and only conducted for 2 years, while the original schedule was for 5 years. Besides, we sent 1–2 invitation letters to the subjects before the third follow-up investigation, some participants could not be contacted due to reasons such as moving out of the government housing estates, some were unable to participate in the third follow-up visit due to serious diseases, and severe cognitive impairment or clinically diagnosed dementia.

Figure 1

Table 1. Characteristics of the study population by quartiles of quantity and variety in total FV intake (Median values and interquartile ranges or frequencies and percentages)

Figure 2

Table 2. Multivariable-adjusted odds ratios for cognitive impairment by quartiles of fruit and vegetable (FV) intake (Odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals)

Figure 3

Fig. 2. Dose-dependent associations of quantities in fruit and vegetable intake with cognitive impairment. Notes: Covariates in the restricted cubic spline regression model were the same as in the final models of Table 2. Panel A. Nonlinear association was observed for fruit intake (P-overall = 0·008, P-nonlinearity = 0·005). For fruit intake within the range of 0–300 g/d, the OR (95 % CI) per sd increment was 0·91 (0·86, 0·96; P < 0·001). Panel B. Linear inverse association was observed for vegetable intake (P-overall = 0·02, P-nonlinearity = 0·64) and the OR (95 % CI) per sd increment of vegetable intake was 0·93 (0·88, 0·98; P = 0·007).

Figure 4

Table 3. Least-squares means of SM-MMSE score by quartiles of fruit and vegetable (FV) intake (Least-squares mean values and 95 % confidence intervals)

Figure 5

Table 4. Joint association of quantities and varieties in fruit and vegetable (FV) intake with cognitive impairment (Odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals)

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Sheng et al. supplementary material

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