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Hair Zinc and Chromium Levels Were Associated with a Reduced Likelihood of Age Related Cognitive Decline in Centenarians and Oldest-Old Adults

  • Original Research
  • Published:
The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Background

Cognitive function has inevitable decline with advancing age in nature, and age-related cognitive decline (ARCD) is of increasing concern to aging population. Scarce study has involved the associations between hair trace elements and ARCD in older adults, especially in centenarians and oldest-old adults. This study was to investigate the associations between hair trace elements and ARCD in centenarians and oldest-old adults.

Methods

Based on the household registration information of centenarians and oldest-old adults provided by the Civil Affairs Department of Hainan Province, China, the investigators conducted a one-to-one household survey among centenarians (≥100 years old) and oldest-old adults (80–99 years old). All 50 centenarians had a median age of 103 years and females accounted for 68.0%. All 73 oldest-old adults aged 80–99 years had a median age of 90 years and females accounted for 82.2%. Basic information were obtained with questionnaire interview, physical examination, biological test and hair collection by pre-trained local doctors and nurses. An inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer was used to measure hair trace elements. All data in this study comes from China. Age, sex, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, smoking, drinking, hemoglobin, albumin, fasting blood pressure, zinc, chromium, copper, selenium, iron, manganese, strontium, lead, magnesium, potassium, and barium were simultaneously included in multivariate Logistic regression analysis. One adjusted model was done with all hair trace elements together.

Results

Zinc and chromium levels were significantly lower in participants with ARCD than those without ARCD (P < 0.05 for all). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis indicated that zinc [odds ratio (OR): 0.988, 95%confidence interval (95%CI): 0.977–0.999] and chromium (OR: 0.051, 95%CI: 0.004–0.705) were associated with a reduced likelihood of ARCD (P < 0.05 for all).

Conclusions

Hair zinc and chromium levels were associated with a reduced likelihood of ARCD in centenarians and oldest-old adults. Further studies are necessary to verify if zinc and chromium supplementation has the potential to improve cognitive function and prevent ARCD development.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to all participants and their families who agreed to participate, as well as all our colleagues who participated in this study.

Funding

Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Excellent Youth Incubation Program of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (2020-YQPY-007), the Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (821QN389, 821MS117, 822MS198), the 2021 Military Training Injury Prevention Treatment Research Task (21xls37), the Major Science and Technology Programme of Hainan Province (ZDKJ2019012), the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC2000400), the National S&T Resource Sharing Service Platform Project of China (YCZYPT[2018]07), and the Specific Research Fund of Innovation Platform for Academicians of Hainan Province (YSPTZX202216). The sponsors had no role in the design, conduct, interpretation, review, approval, or control of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Hainan Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Sanya, China

    L. Feng & Y. Liu

  2. Neurosurgery Department, Hainan Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Sanya, China

    Y. Zheng

  3. Central Laboratory, Hainan Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Sanya, China

    Yali Zhao

  4. Chinese People’s Liberation Army Medical School, Beijing, China

    Mingxing Lei

  5. Department of Orthopedics, Hainan Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Sanya, China

    Zhirui Li

  6. Department of Cardiology, Hainan Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Sanya, China

    Shihui Fu

  7. Department of Geriatric Cardiology, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, China

    Shihui Fu

Authors
  1. L. Feng
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  2. Y. Zheng
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  3. Y. Liu
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  4. Yali Zhao
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  6. Zhirui Li
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  7. Shihui Fu
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Contributions

Author contributions: All authors contributed to the conception and design of the work, performed the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data for the work, and drafted and revised the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yali Zhao, Mingxing Lei, Zhirui Li or Shihui Fu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study has been approved by the ethics committee of Hainan Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (301HNLL-2016-01). The informed consents were obtained from all the participants and their legal guardians.

Conflict of interest: All authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary Table 1

. Factors associated with MMSE in multivariate Linear regression analysis

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Feng, L., Zheng, Y., Liu, Y. et al. Hair Zinc and Chromium Levels Were Associated with a Reduced Likelihood of Age Related Cognitive Decline in Centenarians and Oldest-Old Adults. J Nutr Health Aging 27, 1012–1017 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-023-2008-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-023-2008-8

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