(P09-022-25) The Multicultural Healthy Diet Study to Reduce Cognitive Decline & Alzheimer’s Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial in a Diverse Cohort of Middle-Aged Adults

Objectives: To adapt an anti-inflammatory diet to a multicultural setting and assess its impact on cognitive decline in healthy middle-aged adults.

Methods: We performed a phase II pilot randomized clinical trial in adults (40-65 yr) from Bronx, N.Y. Participants followed either the Multicultural Healthy Diet (MHD) an anti-inflammatory diet, or their usual diet (Comparison). Diet was assessed using ASA-24 food records. The primary cognitive outcome was assessed at nine months following randomization using a global composite score derived from three ambulatory cognitive assessments of visuospatial memory (Grid Memory), processing speed (Symbol Search) and short-term associative memory binding (Color Shapes). Secondary outcomes included performance on individual tests and association of dietary components with cognitive performance.

Results: At nine-month follow-up the MHD arm had a lower Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) score based on self-reported diet, with an adjusted MHD minus Comparison difference of -0.64 (95% CI: -1.02, -0.27) and -0.94 (95% CI: -1.34, -0.54) for the DII and energy-adjusted DII (E-DII) scores respectively, indicating MHD participants had adhered to an anti-inflammatory diet. The adjusted MHD minus Comparison difference in weight at follow-up was -1.27 kg (95% CI: -2.43, -0.10). No statistically significant difference between arms was found in the primary outcome- cognitive global score change- from baseline: -0.06 (95% CI: -0.15, 0.04), p=0.259.

Conclusions: The MHD was feasible and acceptable to a culturally diverse US cohort. In healthy middle-aged adults, changes in the global composite cognitive score over nine months did not differ significantly between the MHD and Comparison arms.

Funding Sources: This study was supported by funds from National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AG055527 (YM-R), associated supplement (YM-R) and K99AG056670 (JGH). This work utilized cognitive assessments developed under NIA Grant U2CAG060408 and Grant P01AG003949 (Einstein Aging Study). Additional support at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine was provided by NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Science Einstein-Montefiore CTSA UL1 TR002556.