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Background: Severe cognitive decline is one of the major public health problems in developed countries. Finding modifiable risk factors could become essential to develop strategies to prevent or delay dementia progression and stop its rising incidence. Objective: Our aim was to investigate the association between hypertension and cognitive function and to assess whether better adherence to the Mediterranean diet may modify this association. Methods: A subsample of 764 participants from the 'Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra' (SUN) cohort older than 55 years was evaluated with the Spanish Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-m) at two-time points, separated by 6 years. Multivariable-adjusted linear regression models were used to prospectively assess the association between hypertension –also according to adherence to the Mediterranean diet– and 6-y changes in cognitive function. Results: The adjusted between-group difference in the 6-year change of the TICS-m score between hypertensive participants and their non-hypertensive counterparts was −0.36 (95% CI −0.70, −0.02). This association was stronger among participants with a lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet [−0.62 (95% CI: −1.09, −0.15)] but the differences between hypertensive and non-hypertensive participants were no longer significant among participants with a higher baseline adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Conclusion: In this Mediterranean cohort, hypertension was inversely associated with cognitive function, but an attenuation of this detrimental association by a moderate/high adherence to the Mediterranean diet was suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The available large prospective studies supporting an inverse association between better adherence to the Mediterranean diet and lower mortality have mainly included older adults. It is not clear whether this inverse association is also present among younger individuals at lower mortality risk. Our aim was to assess the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and total mortality in middle-aged adults from the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Project. We followed 15,535 Spanish university graduates for a mean of 6.8 y. Their mean age was 38 ± 12 y, 59.6% were females, and all were initially free of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. A validated FFQ was used to assess dietary habits. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was categorized into 3 groups according to the Mediterranean Diet Score (low, 0-2 points; moderate, 3-5 points; and high, 6-9 points). The outcome variable was total mortality. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate HR and 95% CI. We adjusted the estimates for sex, age, years of university education, BMI, smoking, physical activity, television watching, history of depression and baseline hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia. We observed 125 deaths during 105,980 person-years of follow-up. The fully adjusted HR for moderate and high adherence were 0.58 (95% CI: 0.34, 0.99; P= 0.05) and 0.38 (95% CI: 0.21, 0.70; P= 0.002), respectively. For each 2-point increment in the Mediterranean Diet Score, the HR of death was 0.72 (95% CI: 0.58, 0.91; P= 0.006). Among highly educated, middle-aged adults, adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet was associated with reduced risk of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]