Effect of the NU-AGE Diet on Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Published in: Frontiers in physiology 2018, Vol.9, p.349-349
• Main Authors: Marseglia, Anna, Xu, Weili, Fratiglioni, Laura, Fabbri, Cristina, Berendsen, Agnes A M, Bialecka-Debek, Agata, Jennings, Amy, Gillings, Rachel, Meunier, Nathalie, Caumon, Elodie, Fairweather-Tait, Susan, Pietruszka, Barbara, De Groot, Lisette C P G M, Santoro, Aurelia, Franceschi, Claudio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Afdeling Humane voeding; Chair Nutrition and Health over the Lifecourse; cognitive decline; dietary intervention; episodic memory; Global Nutrition; healthy diet; HNE Nutrition and Health over the Lifecourse; HNE Voeding en Gezondheid in de Levenscyclus; Human Nutrition; Human Nutrition & Health; Human Nutrition (HNE); Humane Voeding; Humane Voeding & Gezondheid; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; multicenter; neuroprotective; Physiology; randomized controlled trial; VLAG; Wereldvoeding
• ISSN: 1664-042X; 1664-042X
• DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2018.00349

Findings from animal and epidemiological research support the potential neuroprotective benefits from healthy diets. However, to establish diet-neuroprotective causal relations, evidence from dietary intervention studies is needed. NU-AGE is the first multicenter intervention assessing whether a diet targeting health in aging can counteract the age-related physiological changes in different organs, including the brain. In this study, we specifically investigated the effects of NU-AGE's dietary intervention on age-related cognitive decline. NU-AGE randomized trial (NCT01754012, clinicaltrials.gov) included 1279 relatively healthy older-adults, aged 65-79 years, from five European centers. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups: "control" ( = 638), following a habitual diet; and, "intervention" ( = 641), given individually tailored dietary advice (NU-AGE diet). Adherence to the NU-AGE diet was measured over follow-up, and categorized into tertiles (low, moderate, high). Cognitive function was ascertained at baseline and at 1-year follow-up with the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD)-Neuropsychological Battery and five additional domain-specific single cognitive tests. The raw scores from the CERAD subtests [excluding the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)] and the single tests were standardized into -scores. Global cognition (measured with MMSE and CERAD-total score), and five cognitive domains (perceptual speed, executive function, episodic memory, verbal abilities, and constructional praxis) were created. Cognitive changes as a function of the intervention were analyzed with multivariable mixed-effects models. After the 1-year follow-up, 571 (89.1%) controls and 573 (89.8%) from the intervention group participated in the post-intervention assessment. Both control and intervention groups showed improvements in global cognition and in all cognitive domains after 1 year, but differences in cognitive changes between the two groups were not statistically significant. However, participants with higher adherence to the NU-AGE diet showed statistically significant improvements in global cognition [β 0.20 (95%CI 0.004, 0.39), -value = 0.046] and episodic memory [β 0.15 (95%CI 0.02, 0.28), -value = 0.025] after 1 year, compared to those adults with lower adherence. High adherence to the culturally adapted, individually tailored, NU-AGE diet could slow down age-related cognitive decline, helping to prevent cognitive imp