Association between dietary niacin intake and cognitive function in the elderly: Evidence from NHANES 2011-2014

Xia Shen; Long Yang; Yuan Yuan Liu; Lei Jiang; Jian Feng Huang

doi:10.1002/fsn3.3428

Association between dietary niacin intake and cognitive function in the elderly: Evidence from NHANES 2011-2014

Food Sci Nutr. 2023 May 16;11(8):4651-4664. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.3428. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Authors

Xia Shen^{1

2}, Long Yang³, Yuan Yuan Liu^{1

2}, Lei Jiang⁴, Jian Feng Huang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nursing Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University Wuxi China.
² Department of Nursing, Wuxi Medical College Jiangnan University Wuxi China.
³ College of Pediatrics Xinjiang Medical University Urumqi China.
⁴ Department of Radiology The Convalescent Hospital of East China Wuxi China.
⁵ Department of Radiation Oncology Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University Wuxi China.

Abstract

Recent studies have shown an inconsistent association between dietary niacin and cognitive function. And this remains unclear in the American outpatient population. The aim of this study was to assess whether there is an association between dietary niacin and cognitive performance in an older American population aged ≥60 years. A total of 2523 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2014 were enrolled. Cognitive function was assessed by the CERAD Word Learning (CERAD-WL) test, the CERAD Delayed Recall (CERAD-DR) test, the Animal Fluency test (AFT), and the Digit Symbol Substitution test (DSST). Cognitive impairment that meets one of the four scoring conditions listed above is defined as low cognitive function. Dietary niacin intake was obtained from 2 days of a 24-h recall questionnaire. Based on the quartiles of dietary niacin intake, they were divided into four groups: Q1 (<15.51 mg), Q2 (15.51-20.68 mg), Q3 (20.69-26.90 mg), and Q4 (>26.91 mg). The stability of the results was assessed using multifactorial logistic regression, restricted cubic spline (RCS) models, and sensitivity stratified analysis. More than half of the participants had cognitive impairment (52.52%). In the fully adjusted model, niacin was associated with a significantly reduced risk of cognitive impairment in Q3 and Q4 compared with the Q1 group (OR: 0.610, 95% CI: 0.403, 0.921, p = .022; OR: 0.592, 95% CI: 0.367, 0.954, p = .034). Meanwhile, niacin was negatively associated with poor cognition as assessed by the CERAD-WL test, CERAD test, AFT, and DSST. An L-shaped dose-response relationship between dietary niacin and cognitive function was observed in all participants (nonlinear p < .001). There were also interactions that existed in populations with different carbohydrate intakes and cholesterol intakes (p for interaction = .031, p for interaction = .005). These findings provide new evidence for the potential role of dietary niacin intake on cognitive function in the elderly.

Keywords: cognitive function; cognitive impairment; cross‐sectional; dose–response; elderly; niacin.