Nutritional Status and Cognitive Abilities of Adults (20-60 years) from the City of Mumbai

Abstract

Early identification of cognitive failure and its association with nutritional status might aid in the planning of appropriate prevention strategies. The present study was planned to find out the association between the age, gender, body composition and dietary nutrient consumption of adult males and females residing in the city of Mumbai, with their cognitive ability. Four hundred apparently healthy adults (20-60 years) residing in the city of Mumbai were purposively selected for the survey. Cognitive ability of participants was assessed using Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) tool. Anthropometric and body composition parameters were analysed using standard procedures. Information on the dietary nutrient intake was collected using 3 day dietary recall method. Data was statistically analysed using the IBM SPSS (Version 22) software and Microsoft excel 2007 for windows. MCI was found in 21.5% of the participants. High prevalence of general and abdominal obesity was also observed in the participants. Data on the dietary nutrient intake showed that young adults (20-40 years) with high dietary fat especially SFA and MUFA consumption were found to be at a lower risk of developing MCI. Their anthropometric parameters i.e. Body Mass Index positively correlated with cognitive scores (p<0.05) whereas in older adults (40-60 years), body fat showed negative association (p<0.05) where as height, muscle mass and bone mass showed positive association with their cognitive scores (p<0.01). Thus, results of the study suggested that early detection of cognitive impairment would facilitate prevention of further neurodegeneration. Hence, identifying and preventing risk factors of cognitive impairment such as obesity and encouraging consumption of neuroprotective foods would help in the prevention of cognitive impairment.