Original Article

Mediterranean diet and risk for Alzheimer's disease

  1. Nikolaos Scarmeas MD1,2,3,*,
  2. Yaakov Stern PhD1,2,3,
  3. Ming-Xin Tang PhD1,4,
  4. Richard Mayeux MD1,3,
  5. Jose A. Luchsinger MD1,5

Article first published online: 18 APR 2006

DOI: 10.1002/ana.20854

Issue

Annals of Neurology

Annals of Neurology

Volume 59, Issue 6, pages 912–921, June 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Scarmeas, N., Stern, Y., Tang, M.-X., Mayeux, R. and Luchsinger, J. A. (2006), Mediterranean diet and risk for Alzheimer's disease. Ann Neurol., 59: 912–921. doi: 10.1002/ana.20854

Author Information

  1. 1

    Taub Institute for Research in Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, New York, NY

  2. 2

    Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, New York, NY

  3. 3

    Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY

  4. 4

    Division of Biostatistics, Joseph P. Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY

  5. 5

    Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY

*Columbia University Medical Center, 622 West 168th Street; PH 19th Floor; New York, NY 10032

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 22 MAY 2006
  2. Article first published online: 18 APR 2006
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 10 MAR 2006
  4. Manuscript Revised: 3 MAR 2006
  5. Manuscript Received: 22 DEC 2005

Funded by

  • NIH (National Institute on Aging, Columbia University General Clinical Research Center). Grant Numbers: AG07232, AG07702, AG15294-06, 1K08AG20856-01, RR00645
  • Charles S. Robertson Memorial Gift for Research in Alzheimer's disease
  • Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Foundation
  • New York City Council Speaker's Fund for Public Health Research
  • Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain

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Abstract

Objective

Previous research in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has focused on individual dietary components. There is converging evidence that composite dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) is related to lower risk for cardiovascular disease, several forms of cancer, and overall mortality. We sought to investigate the association between MeDi and risk for AD.

Methods

A total of 2,258 community-based nondemented individuals in New York were prospectively evaluated every 1.5 years. Adherence to the MeDi (zero- to nine-point scale with higher scores indicating higher adherence) was the main predictor in models that were adjusted for cohort, age, sex, ethnicity, education, apolipoprotein E genotype, caloric intake, smoking, medical comorbidity index, and body mass index.

Results

There were 262 incident AD cases during the course of 4 (±3.0; range, 0.2–13.9) years of follow-up. Higher adherence to the MeDi was associated with lower risk for AD (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.83–0.98; p = 0.015). Compared with subjects in the lowest MeDi tertile, subjects in the middle MeDi tertile had a hazard ratio of 0.85 (95% confidence interval, 0.63–1.16) and those at the highest tertile had a hazard ratio of 0.60 (95% confidence interval, 0.42–0.87) for AD (p for trend = 0.007).

Interpretation

We conclude that higher adherence to the MeDi is associated with a reduction in risk for AD. Ann Neurol 2006

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