Scientific publications

Dairy product consumption and changes in cognitive performance: Two-year analysis of the PREDIMED-Plus cohort. Scientific Publication

Jul 1, 2022 | Magazine: Molecular Nutrition & Food Research

Jiaqi Ni  1   2   3 , Stephanie K Nishi  1   2   3   4   5 , Nancy Babio  1   2   3 , Miguel A Martínez-González  3   6   7 , Dolores Corella  3   8 , Olga Castañer  3   9 , J Alfredo Martínez  3   10   11 , Ángel M Alonso-Gómez  3   12 , Enrique Gómez-Gracia  3   13 , Jesús Vioque  14   15 , Dora Romaguera  3   16 , José López-Miranda  3   17 , Ramon Estruch  3   18 , Francisco J Tinahones  3   19 , José Lapetra  3   20 , J Luís Serra-Majem  3   21 , Aurora Bueno-Cavanillas  14   22   23 , Josep A Tur  3   24 , Vicente Martín Sánchez  14   25 , Xavier Pintó  3   26   27 , José J Gaforio  14   28 , Ana Barabash Bustelo  29   30   31 , Josep Vidal  30   32 , Clotilde Vázquez  3   33 , Lidia Daimiel  34 , Emili Ros  3   35 , Estefanía Toledo  3   6 , Oscar Coltell  3   36 , Carlos Gómez-Martínez  1   2   3 , María Dolores Zomeño  9   37 , Carolina Donat-Vargas  38   39   40 , Leire Goicolea-Güemez  3   12 , Cristina Bouzas  3   24 , Manoli Garcia-de-la-Hera  14   15 , Alice Chaplin  3   16 , Antonio Garcia-Rios  3   17 , Rosa Casas  3   18 , Isabel Cornejo-Pareja  3   19 , José Manuel Santos-Lozano  3   20 , Teresa Rognoni  41 , Carmen Saiz  3   8 , Indira Paz Ganiel  1   2   3 , Mireia Malcampo  3   9 , Almudena Sánchez-Villegas  3   21   42 , Itziar Salaverria-Lete  3   12 , Ana García-Arellano  3   6   43 , Helmut Schröder  9   14 , Jordi Salas-Salvadó  1   2   3   44 , PREDIMED-Plus investigators.  1


Scope: Dairy consumption has been suggested to impact cognition; however, evidence is limited and inconsistent. This study aimed to longitudinally assess the association between dairy consumption with cognitive changes in an older Spanish population at high cardiovascular disease risk.

Methods and results: 4668 participants aged 55-75 years, completed a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline and a neuropsychological battery of tests at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Multivariable linear regression models were used, scaled by 100, to assess associations between baseline tertile daily consumption and 2-year changes in cognitive performance. Participants in the highest tertile of total milk and whole-fat milk consumption had a greater decline in global cognitive function (β: -4.71, 95% CI: -8.74 to -0.69, p-trend = 0.020 and β: -6.64, 95% CI: -10.81 to -2.47, p-trend = 0.002, respectively) compared to those in the lowest tertile. No associations were observed between low fat milk, yogurt, cheese or fermented dairy consumption and changes in cognitive performance.

Conclusion: Results suggest there are no clear prospective associations between consumption of most commonly consumed dairy products and cognition, although there may be an association with a greater rate of cognitive decline over a 2-year period in older adults at high cardiovascular disease risk for whole-fat milk. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

CITATION Mol Nutr Food Res. 2022 Jul;66(14):e2101058. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.202101058. Epub 2022 Jun 1.

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