Association of dietary inflammatory index and leukocyte telomere length with mild cognitive impairment in Chinese older adults

ABSTRACT

Background

There are minimal data on the relationship between DII and MCI in an elderly Chinese population and no research has assessed the potential effect of LTL.

Objective

We investigated the association between DII and MCI while taking into account the potential effect of LTL.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 3,386 participants aged ≥ 60 years of age from the Tianjin Elderly Nutrition and Cognition Cohort study. DII score was constructed based on a validated self-administered food frequency questionnaire was calculated based on the method developed by Shivappa et al. LTL was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the association between DII, LTL and MCI. Moreover, mediation analysis was employed to test the mediation effect of LTL on the total effect of DII on MCI.

Results

Compared with the participants in the lowest tertiles of LTL and DII score, the odds ratios (ORs) of MCI in the highest tertiles were 0.386(95% CI: 0.281-0.529) and 1.650 (95% CI: 1.232-2.209), respectively. The significant association between DII score and MCI persisted after further adjusting for LTL (OR: 1.595; 95% CI: 1.189-2.140). The link between DII score and MCI was mediated partially by LTL (βindirect effect= -0.008, P<0.05).

Conclusion

High DII score was positively associated with MCI prevalence in an elderly Chinese population and the link between DII scores and MCI seemed to be mediated partially by LTL.

KEYWORDS:

• Dietary inflammatory index
• leukocyte telomere length
• mild cognitive impairment
• inflammation

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to all participants and those who contributed to data collection and data curation for the TENCC study.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, G.H. or M.Z, upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 81730091].