Association between Nutrition and Cognition in a Multi-Ethnic Cohort from Singapore

Nutrition, a modifiable risk factor, presents a low-cost prevention strategy to reduce the burden of cognitive impairment and dementia. However, studies examining the effects of dietary patterns on cognition are lacking in multi-ethnic Asian populations. We investigate the association between diet quality, measured with the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)-2010, and cognitive impairment in middle-and old-aged adults of different ethnicities (Chinese, Malay, Indian) in Singapore. This cross-sectional study (n=3138) was based on data from the Singapore Multi-Ethnic Cohort. Dietary intake collected with a validated semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire were converted into AHEI-2010 scores, where trans-fat and sodium consumption were not considered and a score range of 0-90 was allowed. Higher AHEI-2010 score indicates better compliance to recommended dietary pattern. Cognition, assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), was analysed as a continuous or binary outcome (cognitively impaired is defined using education-based cut-offs of