Associations between Diet Quality and Global Cognitive Ability across the Life Course: Longitudinal Analysis of the 1946 British Birth Cohort.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Diet is a risk factor for later-life cognitive decline and dementia. The long-term relationship between diet quality and cognitive function is unknown.

Objectives

This study investigated trends in diet quality and cognitive ability and their interrelationship across the life course.

Methods

Using data from the 1946 British Birth Cohort (n = 3059, 50.2% male), group-based trajectory modeling identified diet and cognitive trajectories from childhood to later adulthood, associations between those trajectories, and associations between diet trajectories and later indications of likely dementia. Healthy Eating Index-2020 scores were calculated from food recalls and diaries at ages 4, 36, 43, 53, and 60 to 64 y. Global cognitive ability percentile ranks we

SUBMITTER: Cara KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12860707 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature