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Abstract
Objective: To evaluate total antioxidant capacity of the diet, measured by the ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, in relation to risks of dementia and stroke, as well as key structural brain volumes, in the elderly.
Methods: We prospectively studied 5,395 participants in the Rotterdam Study, aged 55 years and older, who were dementia free and provided dietary information at study baseline; 5,285 individuals were also stroke free at baseline, and 462 were dementia and stroke free at the time of an MRI brain scan 5 years after baseline. Dietary data were ascertained using a semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire, and combined with food-specific FRAP measurements from published tables; this information was aggregated across the diet to obtain “dietary FRAP scores.” Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate relative risks of dementia and stroke, and multivariable-adjusted linear regression was used to estimate mean differences in structural brain volumes, across tertiles of dietary FRAP scores.
Results: During a median 13.8 years of follow-up, we identified approximately 600 cases each of dementia and stroke. In multivariable-adjusted models, we observed no associations between dietary FRAP scores and risk of dementia (p trend = 0.3; relative risk = 1.12, 95% confidence interval = 0.91–1.38, comparing the highest vs lowest FRAP tertiles) or risk of stroke (p trend = 0.3; relative risk = 0.91, 95% confidence interval = 0.75–1.11, comparing extreme FRAP tertiles); results were similar across subtypes of these outcomes. Dietary FRAP scores were unrelated to brain tissue volumes as well.
Conclusions: Total antioxidant capacity of the diet, measured by dietary FRAP scores, does not seem to predict risks of major neurologic diseases.
GLOSSARY
- CI=
- confidence interval;
- DSM-III-R=
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition, revised;
- FRAP=
- ferric-reducing antioxidant power;
- HASTE=
- half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo;
- HR=
- hazard ratio;
- TEAC=
- Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Supplemental data at www.neurology.org
- Received July 24, 2012.
- Accepted November 29, 2012.
- © 2013 American Academy of Neurology
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