Abstract
We recruited 154 community-dwelling elderly individuals and conducted a cohort study to find out the nutrient intake that is suitable for maintaining cognitive function in Japanese elders. Cognitive function was evaluated by the two functional tests, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Wechsler Memory Scale-Delayed Recall (WMS-DR), and daily nutrient intake was estimated from a Brief-type Self-administered Diet History Questionnaire (BDHQ). By a multiple regression analysis, among the four major nutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrate and ash), we detected a significant correlation between the score of cognitive functions assessed by both MoCA and WMS-DR and daily consumption of fat (p = 0.0317 and p = 0.0111, respectively). Among categories of fatty acid, we found a significant correlation between the score of both MoCA and WMS-DR and consumption of monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) (p = 0.0157 and p = 0.0136, respectively). Finally, among MUFAs, we observed a significant correlation between the score of both MoCA and WMS-DR and consumption of oleic acid (p = 0.0405 and p = 0.0165, respectively). From these observations, we can propose that daily consumption of fat, especially in oleic acid, has a beneficial effect against cognitive decline in community-dwelling Japanese elderly individuals.
Highlights
Received: 29 December 2020The decline in cognitive function increases with aging, and age-related cognitive decline is one of major risk factors for the onset of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [1,2,3,4,5]
The reasons we can insist on this observation are because (1) multiple regression analysis showed statistically significant effects on two independent measures of psychological functioning (MoCA and Wechsler Memory Scale-Delayed Recall (WMS-DR)); (2) stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) among the saturated fatty acid types and fat among the four nutrients had statistically significant effects on two independent measures of psychological functioning—Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and WMS-DR; and (3) the fact that these results were obtained in elderly people in Japan, where the intake of fat is relatively low compared to the Western countries
If a similar study were conducted in Europe or the United States, it would be difficult to imagine that the effects of obesity would lead to positive effects of fat intake on cognitive function, and some negative effects have been found
Summary
The decline in cognitive function increases with aging, and age-related cognitive decline is one of major risk factors for the onset of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [1,2,3,4,5]. A research group at Rush University in Chicago, USA, led a proposal for their combination as Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, which is a combination of these two diets, and confirmed its effectiveness in preventing dementia [13,14] These dietary habits are mainly due to the fact that obesity is a problem even in old age in Europe and the United States. Research on the causal interaction between preservation of cognitive function nutrient intake pattern has not been systematically conducted for elderly people in East and daily nutrient intake pattern has not been systematically conducted for elderly people Asian countries such as in Japan, whose eating habits are different from those of Westernin East Asian countries such as in Japan, whose eating habits are different from those of ers.
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