Healthy Diet in Midlife Reduces Risk for Later Cognitive Impairment

Findings seen for adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Adoption of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet in midlife may improve cognitive function later in life for women, according to a study published online Oct. 20 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

Yixiao Song, from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues examined the impact of a healthy lifestyle on development of late-life subjective cognitive complaints among 5,116 participants in the New York University Women’s Health Study (mean age in 1985 to 1991, 46 years).

The researchers found that compared with women in the bottom quartile of the DASH scores, the odds for having two or more late-life subjective cognitive complaints were lower for women in the top quartile of DASH scores at baseline (odds ratio, 0.83). Results were similar with multiple imputation and inverse probability weighting to account for potential selection bias. The inverse association was significantly stronger in women without a history of cancer.

“Our findings suggest that improvements in diet quality during mid-life, especially the diet related to hypertension and cardiovascular profile, may have a role in maintaining an optimal subjective cognitive function among women,” the authors write.

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