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Interventions involving a major dietary component improve cognitive function in cognitively healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
McEvoy et al. (2019) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis with the objective of quantitatively examining whether interventions with a major dietary component can improve cognition among adults who are cognitively healthy, and also to discover responsive domains of cognition that may be useful in designing future trials. The review searched electronic databases for randomized controlled trials investigating the impact of interventions with a major dietary component on cognitive function or incident dementia in adults without known cognitive impairment. Two trials that reported dementia outcomes were qualitatively described, while the 15 trials eligible for meta-analysis produced data on 6480 participants. The results revealed the intervention enhanced performance on measures of global cognition (SMD = 0.14, P = 0.05), executive function (SMD = 0.11, P = 0.003), and processing speed (SMD = 0.12, P = 0.001), compared to control. No influence was observed for delayed memory (SMD = 0.04, P = 0.18). The review found significant heterogeneity and funnel plot asymmetry for global cognition but removing trials with high risk of bias did not alter the pooled findings. McEvoy et al. (2019) approved the use of executive function and processing speed measures as feasible end points in future dietary intervention trials. The researchers suggest that, although lacking in evidence, diverse interventions enhance non-memory cognitive functions during normal cognitive aging. [NPID: cognition, dementia, cognitive function, executive function, cognitive impairment, processing speed, delayed memory, memory]
Year: 2019
