Serum fatty-acid composition and the risk of Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal population-based study.
OBJECTIVE
It is unknown if a specific fatty-acid composition influences the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nutrition is a possible target for prevention of dementia and especially omega-3-based fatty acids (n-3 FAs) have previously been suggested to be beneficial for cognition. The objective was to ascertain whether serum FAs predicts the risk of incident AD and dementia in a longitudinal population-based cohort.


METHODS
Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men started in 1970. The proportions of FAs in serum cholesteryl esters were estimated in men (n=2009) who were 50 years old at baseline. During a 35 year follow-up time, 213 men had developed dementia, out of which 91 AD. The associations were analyzed with Cox proportional hazards and logistic regression; adjusted for age, education and vascular risk factors.


RESULTS
Subjects with a higher proportion of saturated FAs had a decreased risk of AD in crude and multi-adjusted models (hazard ratio for 1-s.d. increase in palmitic acid 0.72; 95% confidence intervals: 0.59-0.89). These associations persisted even in the group of approximately 85-year-old survivors. n-3 FAs FAs were not associated with decreased risk of AD or dementia.


CONCLUSIONS
In contrast to experimental studies, saturated FAs were inversely associated with risk of AD. No evidence of a protective effect of n-3 FAs against dementia was found. The results remained essentially unchanged if competing risk from mortality was taken into account.
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences/Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Uppsala Science Park, Uppsala, Sweden. elina.ronnemaa@pubcare.uu.se
E
E
Rönnemaa
B
B
Zethelius
B
B
Vessby
L
L
Lannfelt
L
L
Byberg
L
L
Kilander
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002788:Cholesterol Esters / Q000097:blood; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004522:Educational Status; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000494:pharmacology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019308:Palmitic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D002788:Cholesterol Esters; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3; D019308:Palmitic Acid