Dairy Product Intake is Associated with Cognition but not Cognitive Decline in the NuAge Community‐Dwelling Older Adult Cohort
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background Dairy products (DP) may exert a role in cognition, possibly through their content in bioactive peptides, vitamin B12, calcium and fermented products. Sparse evidence from cohort studies has related total DP intake to cognitive status, but its impact on age‐related cognitive decline remains unknown. Objective To study associations between total daily intake of DP, high‐fat (HF) and low‐fat (LF) DP, DP categories, and cognition at baseline (T1) and as a 3 y‐change in community‐dwelling older adults. Methods Analyses were conducted on 702 men and 797 women of the Quebec longitudinal study on nutrition and aging (NuAge) aged 67–84 y at T1. Yearly average total dairy intake was calculated from averaging 3 non‐consecutive 24‐h food recalls collected at T1 and 3 at T3. Number of DP servings was calculated as per Canadian Food Guide portion sizes. Cognitive function was assessed yearly by the Modified Mini‐Mental Examination State (3MS). Baseline cross‐sectional associations were estimated using multivariate regression models adjusted for sex, age, education, symptoms of depression (GDS) and global diet quality (Canadian‐Healthy Eating Index, C‐HEI). Longitudinal associations were investigated using linear mixed models over 3 years. Results Baseline 3MS score was 93.2 ± 4.6 in men and 94.6 ± 4.1 in women (p<0.001), and total dairy intake 1.43± 0.84 and 1.38 ± 0.76 servings/d (p=NS). Over 3 years, the 3MS score decreased by 2.2 ± 5.5% ( p <0.001) with a greater decline in men (2.6 ± 5.5%) than women (1.9 ± 5.4%; p <0.001). At baseline, total dairy intake was associated with 3MS score (std β=0.181, p<0.001) in the whole cohort. Though the level of education was the main determinant of 3MS, the association with dairy remained significant in a multivariate model including all predictors (R 2 =0.241). The relationship was also observed in both men and women separately. Among DPs, milk, yogurt, cheese as well as HF and LF dairy intake were associated with baseline 3MS score but only cheese or HF dairy intake remained significant predictors after adjustments (std β=0.055, p=0.018, R 2 =0.240). Usual total dairy intake was not associated with the rate of cognitive decline over 3 years. Conclusions Total dairy, especially HF dairy, were independently and cross‐sectionally associated with cognition, providing further evidence in this novel area. Since full fat cheese largely contributed to HF dairy intake, cheese‐specific nutrients including fatty acids point to potential unique mechanisms in cognitive function. The absence of an association between dairy intake and cognitive decline may be explained by the modest 3‐year decline in this healthy cohort. Longer follow‐up investigation of distinct cognitive domains, and in cognitively impaired older adults, is warranted. Support or Funding Information Dairy Farmers of Canada
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".