DIETARY FOLATE, VITAMIN B-12, VITAMIN B-6 AND INCIDENT ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: THE CACHE COUNTY MEMORY, HEALTH, AND AGING STUDY

Objective: To examine associations between dietary and supplemental folate, vitamin B-12 and vitamin B-6 and incident Alzheimer’s disease (AD) among elderly men and women. Design, Setting and Participants: Data collected were from participants of the Cache County Memory, Health and Aging Study, a longitudinal study of 5092 men and women 65 years and older who were residents of Cache County, Utah in 1995. Measurements: Multistage clinical assessment procedures were used to identify incident cases of AD. Dietary data were collected using a 142-item food frequency questionnaire. Cox Proportional Hazards (CPH) modeling was used to determine hazard ratios across quintiles of micronutrient intake. Results: 202 participants were diagnosed with incident AD during follow-up (1995-2004). In multivariable CPH models that controlled for the effects of gender, age, education, and other covariates there were no observed differences in risk of AD or dementia by increasing quintiles of total intake of folate, vitamin B-12, or vitamin B-6. Similarly, there were no observed differences in risk of AD by regular use of either folate or B6 supplements. Conclusion: Dietary intake of B-vitamins from food and supplemental sources appears unrelated to incidence of dementia and AD. Further studies examining associations between dietary intakes of B-vitamins, biomarkers of B-vitamin status and cognitive endpoints are warranted