Intake of fruit and vegetables and the incident risk of cognitive disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

• Published in: The Journal of nutrition, health & aging Vol. 21; no. 10; pp. 1284 - 1290
• Main Authors: Wu, L., Sun, D., Tan, Yan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris Springer Paris 01.12.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aging; Alzheimer's disease; Cognition Disorders - diet therapy; Cognition Disorders - etiology; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Dementia; Diet; Evidence-based medicine; Fruit - metabolism; Geriatrics/Gerontology; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Meta-analysis; Middle Aged; Neurosciences; Nutrition; Primary Care Medicine; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life Research; Risk Factors; Systematic review; Vegetables - metabolism; Fruit and vegetables; meta-analysis; dementia; Alzheimer’s disease; cognitive disorders
• ISSN: 1279-7707; 1760-4788
• DOI: 10.1007/s12603-017-0875-6

Objectives No quantitative assessment has been performed to specifically link the consumption of fruit and vegetables with the incident risk of cognitive disorders. Methods We searched the PubMed and the Embase databases (both from the inception to June 13th, 2016) for records that report the intake of fruit and vegetables and the risk of developing cognitive disorders (Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and cognitive decline/ impairment). A generic inverse-variance method (random-effects model) was used to combine the relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). To explore the potential sources of heterogeneity, we performed the subgroup and meta-regression analyses by pre-specified characteristics. Results We identified 6 cohorts involving a total of 21,175 participants. The pooled analysis showed that consumption of fruit and vegetables was inversely associated with the incident risk of cognitive disorders, and the pooled RR (95% CI) was 0.74 (0.62, 0.88), with evidence of significant heterogeneity (I 2 =68%). Furthermore, we found that the significant heterogeneity might be attributed to the ethnic difference. Conclusion Further large prospective studies should be performed to quantify the potential dose-response patterns of fruit and/or vegetables intake and to explore the role of fruit or vegetables consumption separately on cognitive disorders in different populations.