Olive oil and cognition: results from the three-city study.
BACKGROUND
Olive oil is a major component of the Mediterranean diet suggested to be beneficial to counteract Alzheimer's disease.


OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to examine the association between olive oil use, cognitive deficit and cognitive decline in a large elderly population.


METHODS
We followed 6,947 subjects with a brief baseline food frequency questionnaire and repeated cognitive tests. Olive oil intake was categorized as none (22.7%), moderate (use for cooking or dressing, 39.9%) and intensive (use for both cooking and dressing, 37.4%). Associations between olive oil and cognitive outcomes were examined taking into account socio-economic factors, health behaviors, health measures and other dietary intakes.


RESULTS
Participants with moderate or intensive use of olive oil compared to those who never used olive oil showed lower odds of cognitive deficit for verbal fluency and visual memory. For cognitive decline during the 4-year follow-up, the association with intensive use was significant for visual memory (adjusted OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.69-0.99) but not for verbal fluency (OR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.70-1.03) in multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
This olive oil-cognition association needs to be confirmed by further studies. However, our findings already shed light on the potential importance of olive oil in the Mediterranean diet and on its beneficial effects on health.
Berr
Claudine
C
INSERM U888 Pathologies du Systeme Nerveux: Recherche Epidemiologique et Clinique, Université Montpellier 1, Montpellier, France. claudine.berr@inserm.fr
Portet
Florence
F
Carriere
Isabelle
I
Akbaraly
Tasnime N
TN
Feart
Catherine
C
Gourlet
Véronique
V
Combe
Nicole
N
Barberger-Gateau
Pascale
P
Ritchie
Karen
K
D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D038441:Diet, Mediterranean; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D000069463:Olive Oil; D010938:Plant Oils; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology
D000069463:Olive Oil; D010938:Plant Oils