Midlife Healthy-Diet Index and Late-Life Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Aim: To study long-term effects of dietary patterns on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: Of 525 subjects randomly selected from population-based cohorts surveyed at midlife, a total of 385 (73%) subjects were re-examined 14 years later in the CAIDE study. A healthy-diet index (range 0–17) was constructed including both healthy and unhealthy dietary components. Results: Persons with a healthy diet (healthy-diet index >8 points) had a decreased risk of dementia (OR 0.12, 95% CI 0.02–0.85) and AD (OR 0.08, 95% CI 0.01–0.89) compared with persons with an unhealthy diet (0–8 points), adjusting for several possible confounders. Conclusions: Healthy diet at midlife is associated with a decreased risk of dementia/AD in late life. These findings highlight the importance of dietary patterns and may make more effective measures for dementia/AD prevention or postponement possible.