Sugar in Beverage and the Risk of Incident Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and Stroke: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: This study aimed to investigate the association between sugar in beverage and dementia, Alzheimer Disease (AD) dementia and stroke. Methods: This prospective cohort study were based on the US community-based Framingham Heart Study (FHS). Sugar in beverage was assessed between 1991 and 1995 (5th exam). Surveillance for incident events including dementia and stroke commenced at examination 9 through 2014 and continued for 15-20 years. Results: At baseline, a total of 1865 (63%) subjects consumed no sugar in beverage, whereas 525 (18%) subjects consumed it in 1-7 servings/week and 593 (29%) in over 7 servings/week. Over an average follow-up of 19 years in 1384 participants, there were 275 dementia events of which 73 were AD dementia. And 103 of 1831 participants occurred stroke during the follow-up nearly 16 years. After multivariate adjustments, individuals with the highest intakes of sugar in beverage had a higher risk of all dementia, AD dementia and stroke relative to individuals with no intakes, with HRs of 2.80(95%CI 2.24-3.50) for all dementia, 2.55(95%CI 1.55-4.18) for AD dementia, and 2.11(95%CI 1.48-3.00) for stroke. And the same results were shown in the subgroup for individuals with median intakes of sugar in beverage. Conclusion: Higher consumption of sugar in beverage was associated with an increased risk of all dementia, AD dementia and stroke.