Older adults with food insecurity may have greater dementia risk
Older adults who experience food insecurity are more likely to screen positive for probable dementia than those with reliable access to healthy foods, according to a recent study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study found that food insecurity in both midlife and older age—prolonged or repeated episodes of food insecurity—was associated with the greatest likelihood of probable dementia, whereas food insecurity in midlife alone was not significantly associated with probable dementia.
The study was published in September in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and featured in an Oct. 7 article in PsyPost.
First author Cindy Leung, associate professor of public health nutrition, and colleagues analyzed data from 2,051 participants in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics collected between 1999 and 2021. They examined the associations between food insecurity and probable dementia among participants in midlife (ages 44 to 62.3) and older adulthood (ages 60 to 79).
The results showed that adults with food insecurity in later life had 2.5 times the odds of probable dementia compared with those who had access to healthy foods. Participants who experienced food insecurity in both midlife and later life had nearly three times the odds of probable dementia.
The study authors called for future research to examine how income and nutrition policies might alleviate food insecurity and reduce the risk of dementia in later life.
Read the study: Associations between mid-life and later-life food insecurity on probable dementia in a national sample of United States adults
Read the PsyPost article: Food insecurity in later life is linked to higher odds of probable dementia
