Daily 100g fruit and vegetable reduces risk of cognitive impairment and dementia among elderly

Objectives:
Increased consumption of fruit and vegetables has been shown to be associated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in many epidemiological studies; although sometimes the results are inconsistent. Moreover, the strength of the favorable relation remains uncertain due to the differences in sample selections, methodological approaches, analytical techniques and outcome definitions. Therefore, this meta-analysis (review article) has been conducted.

Does an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables reduce risk of cognitive impairment and dementia?

Study design:
This review article included 5 cohort studies and 4 cross-sectional studies with a total of 31,104 participants and 4,583 incident cases of cognitive impairment and dementia.

There was no potential publication bias in the meta-analysis and the dose-response meta-analysis.

Results and conclusions:
The investigators found an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables was associated with a significant reduction of 20% in the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia [OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.71-0.89, I2 = 55.2%, p = 0.005].

The investigators found subgroup analyses showed an inverse association between fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in participants with mean age over 65 years [OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.71-0.91] and combined sexes [OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.66-0.78]. However, studies from the United States and with full marks of study quality score did not show statistical significances.

The investigators found dose-response meta-analysis showed that an increment of 100g per day of fruit and vegetable consumption was related to a 13% [OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.77-0.99, I2 = 39.8%, p = 0.173] reduction in cognitive impairment and dementia risk.

The investigators concluded that an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, at least 100g per day of fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.

Original title:
Increased Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables Is Related to a Reduced Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: Meta-Analysis by Jiang X, Huang J, [...], Zhang Z.

Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5293796/

Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on elderly and consumption of fruit and vegetables right here.