Healthy dietary patterns and cognitive status in Mild Cognitive Impairment subjects

Abstract Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) may be a prodromal condition of clinically overt dementia. Several risk factors have been investigated for their possible role in dementia etiology. Among these, higher adherence to healthy dietary habits, such as the Mediterranean-type diets, has been hypothesized to decrease dementia risk. Our objective was to study the associations between adherence to four dietary patterns (Dietary Approach to Stopping Hypertension-DASH, Mediterranean and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay-MIND) with cognitive impairment status of MCI subjects. In 2019-2023, 144 MCI subjects were recruited at Neurology Memory Clinics at Modena and Reggio Emilia Hospitals and completed a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) developed within the EPIC project. Through the EPIC-FFQ, we estimated adherence to the DASH diet (range 8-40), the Greek Mediterranean Index-GMI (range 0-9), the Italian Mediterranean Index-IMI (range 0-11), and the MIND diet (range 0-15), the higher scores indicating higher adherence. Participants’ global cognitive status was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Muti-adjusted spline regression analyses were performed to assess non-linear associations between the variables. Median and interquartile range (IQR) levels of adherence were 24 (21-27) for the DASH diet, 4 (3-6) for the GMI, 4 (3-5) for the IMI and 7 (6.5-8.5) for the MIND diet. A U-shaped relation was observed for the DASH and Mediterranean diets with MMSE score. At levels of adherence below the median, the association was negative, while it became positive at higher adherence scores (> 25 for the DASH diet and >5 for the GMI and IMI). A positive and almost linear relation emerged between the MIND diet and MMSE. These findings suggest that higher adherence to healthy dietary patterns, particularly the MIND diet, is related to better global cognitive status in MCI subjects. Key messages • Healthy dietary patterns are positively associated with higher global cognitive status. • Higher MIND diet scores are associated with better global cognitive status.