Association between dietary inflammatory index score and incident dementia

Abstract INTRODUCTION We evaluated whether higher Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores were associated with increased incidence of all‐cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia over 22.3 years of follow‐up in the community‐based Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort. METHODS One thousand four hundred eighty‐seven participants (mean ± standard deviation, age in years 69 ± 6) completed food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) and had incident all‐cause dementia and AD surveillance data available. RESULTS Two hundred forty‐six participants developed all‐cause dementia (including AD, n = 187) over a median follow‐up time of 13.1 years. Higher DII scores, averaged across a maximum of three timepoints, were associated with an increased incidence of all‐cause dementia and AD after adjustment for demographic, lifestyle, and clinical covariates (hazard ratio [HR] 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10–1.33, P < 0.001; HR 1.20, 95% CI: 1.07–1.34d, P = 0.001, respectively). DISCUSSION Higher DII scores were associated with a higher risk of incident all‐cause dementia and AD. Although these promising findings need to be replicated and further validated, our results suggest that diets that correlate with low DII scores may prevent late‐life dementia. Highlights Higher Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores were associated with an increased incidence of all‐cause dementia. Higher DII scores were associated with an increased incidence of Alzheimer's disease dementia. Diets that correlate with low DII scores may prevent late‐life dementia.