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Dietary inflammatory index, genetic susceptibility and risk of incident dementia: a prospective cohort study from UK biobank

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Abstract

Background

Genetic factors, diet and inflammation are associated with the development of dementia. In this study, we aimed at evaluating the impact of the dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores and genetic susceptibility on the development of dementia.

Methods

This prospective study involved 207,301 participants aged between 39 and 72 years from UK biobank. A web-based 24-h dietary questionnaire was collected at least once from participants between 2006 and 2012. The DII was calculated based on inflammatory effect score of nutrients. Individual AD-GRS (Alzheimer’s disease genetic risk score) was calculated. Incident dementia was ascertained through hospital or death records.

Results

Of all 207,301 participants, 468 incident cases of all-cause dementia (165 AD, 91 VD and 26 FTD) were reported during a follow-up period of 11.4 years. The participants in the highest quintile (Q) of DII scores reported a higher risk for all-cause dementia (Q5 vs. Q3, hazard ratio (HR) = 1.702; 95% CI: 1.285–2.255) and VD (Q5 vs. Q3, HR = 2.266, 95% CI: 1.133–4.531) compared to participants in the Q3. Besides, when compared with the Q1, there was a higher risk for AD in the subjects of Q5 (Q5 vs. Q1, HR = 1.590; 95% CI: 1.004–2.519). There was a non-linear relationship between DII score and all-cause incidence (P for non-linear = 0.038) by restricted cubic splines. Subgroup analysis found that the increased risk for all-cause dementia and AD was more pronounced in the elderly, women, and higher educated population. Cox regression models indicated that compared with the participants who had a low AD-GRS risk and in the lowest tertile of DII, participants had a high AD-GRS and the highest tertile of DII were associated with a higher risk of AD (HR = 1.757, 95% CI: 1.082–2.855, P = 0.023).

Conclusions

The DII scores were independently associated with an augmented risk for all-cause dementia, AD and VD. Additionally, high AD-GRS with higher DII scores was significantly associated with a higher risk of AD.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from UK Biobank but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission from UK Biobank.

Abbreviations

UKBB:

UK Biobank

AD:

Alzheimer’s disease

VD:

Vascular dementia

FTD:

Frontotemporal dementia

DII:

Dietary inflammatory index

SNPs:

Single-ucleotide polymorphisms

WBC:

White blood cells

GRS:

Genetic risk score

NLR:

Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio

TC:

Total cholesterol

TG:

Triglyceride

HDL:

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol

LDL:

Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol

UA:

Uric acid

CRP:

C-reactive protein

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the participants for their generous contributions to the UKBB study and also thank all members of the UKBB for their dedication.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou—Key Lab of Guangzhou Basic and Translational Research of Pan-vascular Diseases (202201020042), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81971121, 82171316, 81801150, 82271304, and 81671167), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2017A020215049, 2019A050513005), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2018A0303130182 and 2020A1515010279), the Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund Project of Guangdong Province (2022A1515012311), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (21621102), Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (2014Y2-00505, 201508020004), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou (202002020003, 202201010127) and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Informatization (Grant No. 2021B1212040007).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Min Peng, Shiqi Yuan and Dan Lu contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Stroke Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

    Min Peng, Shiqi Yuan, Dan Lu, Yitong Ling, Xiaxuan Huang & Anding Xu

  2. Clinical Neuroscience Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

    Min Peng, Dan Lu & Anding Xu

  3. Department of Clinical Research, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

    Jun Lyu

  4. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Informatization, Guangzhou, China

    Jun Lyu

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Contributions

JL and AX conceptualized the research aims. YL and XH extracted the data from the UK database. MP, SY and DL planned the formal analyses. MP and SY wrote the first draft of the paper. DL prepared the figures. YL and XH prepared the tables. JL and AX made vital revision and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jun Lyu or Anding Xu.

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Conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Ethical standard

This study was approved by the North West Multicenter Research Ethics Committee (reference:16/NW/0274). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants. We obtained a license from the UK Biobank to use data for this study (Applications: 76636).

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Peng, M., Yuan, S., Lu, D. et al. Dietary inflammatory index, genetic susceptibility and risk of incident dementia: a prospective cohort study from UK biobank. J Neurol 271, 1286–1296 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-023-12065-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-023-12065-7

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