(P22-016-25) Association of Food Groups and Healthy Eating Index Scores With Domains of Cognitive Function in Older Adults From the Upper-Midwest: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives: Neurocognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease often take decades to manifest, therefore, understanding the preventative role of nutrition is important, especially with the rise in the aging population. In this pilot project, our central goal was to explore the association of habitual diet quality and lifestyle factors with domains of cognitive functions in older adults.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at South Dakota State University. 46 generally healthy adults aged 65+ completed a validated battery of CERAD neuropsychological assessments, PHQ-9, PSQI, health information, and Short Healthy Eating Index (HEI) surveys. The data analyses were conducted using R statistical software, with both traditional statistical methods and advanced supervised machine learning techniques.

Results: The mean HEI score was 51.45±9.57. Females had a higher mean total HEI score (52.6±9.14) compared to males (49.3±10.3), though this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.23). The cognitive scores of the study population were comparable to the normative published data for the same age group using the CERAD tool. Several food groups and HEI-components showed associations with cognitive health scores: saturated fat intake negatively associated with executive function score (1.34-point decrease per unit; p=0.05); refined grains intake negatively associated with the memory composite score (0.69-point decrease per unit; p=0.01) and a marginally with total score (1.09-point decrease per unit, p=0.058); dairy intake a marginal positive relationship with memory composite score (0.97-point increase per unit, p=0.08). Interestingly, visuospatial composite score and execute functioning score decreased with total fruit intake, however, these associations were no longer observed when whole fruit intake was analyzed independently. Furthermore, regression tree analysis (supervised machine learning technique) reinforced the role of refined grains, saturated fat, fruit, and dairy as the key predictors of cognitive performance.

Conclusions: Specific dietary components such as refined grains, saturated fats, fruits, and dairy rather than the overall HEI score, were demonstrated to be the key predictors of the cognitive performance of older adults.

Funding Sources: College of Education and Human Sciences, South Dakota State University