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Assessment of dietary adequacy for important brain micronutrients in patients presenting to a traumatic brain injury clinic for evaluation
This 2014 study analyzed the diet of some patients that were visiting an outpatient traumatic brain injury (TBI) clinic. The patients completed food frequency questionnaires to find out their estimated nutrient intake, while their medical records were also examined to report diagnoses, body mass index, and neurobehavioral subscale scores. Nutrients were assessed individually as well as summarized into summary scores. While the study recognized 14 key micronutrients with defined dietary intake reference ranges that are considered important for brain health, none of the subjects met the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) for all 14 micronutrients. Ten people met the RDAs for 6 or fewer nutrients, and 10 met the RDAs for 11-12 nutrients. While there were 12 nutrients for which there was sufficient sample size to analyze, eleven of these were associated with lower mean somatic scores, nine were linked with worse cognitive scores, and eight had connections with worse affective scores, when comparing individuals who consumed the least amount of nutrients with those who had the highest nutrient intakes. Only folate, magnesium, vitamin C, and vitamin K were statistically related to the somatic mean score. None of the nutrients was linked with cognitive or affective scores. It was discovered that diets commonly failed to meet recommended dietary allowances for important brain nutrients in an outpatient TBI clinic. Notably, the patients who did not meet the estimated average requirements obtained the worst mean neurobehavioral scores. [NPID: traumatic brain injury, brain, patient, clinic, nutrients, micronutrients, RDA, somatic, cognitive, folate, magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamins]
Year: 2013
