Mediterranean Diet, Physical Activity, Cognitive Function, and Dementia Risk

In two large, prospective, population-based studies, researchers examined whether better adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet, with or without greater physical activity, is associated with less global cognitive decline or lower incidence of Alzheimer disease.

Scarmeas and colleagues investigated the association between amount of physical activity, alone or in combination with adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet, and incidence of Alzheimer disease (AD). For a mean of 5.4 years, the investigators followed 1880 community-dwelling, nondemented elders in New York City. Approximately every 1.5 years, participants completed physical-activity and food-frequency questionnaires and underwent cognitive and clinical assessments to determine dementi…