MIND diet and risk of dementia in a population‐based cohort

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundNutritional approaches are considered a promising strategy for dementia prevention, but the composition of an optimal neuroprotective diet remains undetermined. The Mediterranean‐ DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet has been developed which contains food components that are thought to be specifically neuroprotective. However, whether this translates into lower dementia risk in the population is uncertain. We examined the association between the MIND diet and the risk of dementia, and compared this to two general health promoting diets.MethodIn the population‐based Rotterdam Study, dietary intake was assessed with validated food‐frequency questionnaires at two time points: in 6,985 non‐demented participants (median age 65.4 years, 57.8% women) at baseline; and after 10‐20 years of follow‐up in 2,861 non‐demented surviving participants (median age 74.5 years, 57.4% women). We derived adherence scores for the MIND diet, and ‐for comparison‐ for the Dutch dietary guidelines and Mediterranean diet.ResultTotal follow‐up was 25 years from the first and 7 years from the second dietary assessment, during which 1,202 and 152 participants developed dementia, respectively. None of the three diets were associated with dementia over the 25 years since first dietary assessment (Figure 1). However, during the 7‐year follow‐up from the second dietary assessment, higher MIND diet scores were associated with a lower risk of dementia (hazard ratio (HR) [95% confidence interval] per standard deviation increase: 0.869 [0.760‐0.993]). Accordingly, when restricting follow‐up time to 7 years after the first assessment, higher MIND diet scores were also associated with a lower dementia risk (HR 0.714 [0.604‐0.846]). Associations with dementia were generally weaker or absent for the Dutch dietary guideline and Mediterranean diet score.ConclusionBetter adherence to the MIND diet is associated with a lower risk of dementia but these associations were limited to the first 7 years of follow‐up. Associations were stronger for the MIND diet compared to other healthy diets, suggesting that the MIND diet might be more specific for protecting brain health.