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Lipids and cardiovascular/metabolic health

Serum fatty-acid composition and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease: a longitudinal population-based study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 66, pages 885–890 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:

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.

SUBJECTS/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.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Vilmantas Giedraitis, ULSAM data manager; Dr Johan Sundelöf, Dr Malin Degermann-Gunnarsson and Dr Hans Basun for assisting in the assessment of dementia diagnoses; Dr Hans Garmo for significant advice in statistics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences/Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Uppsala Science Park, Uppsala, Sweden

    E Rönnemaa, B Zethelius, B Vessby, L Lannfelt & L Kilander

  2. Uppsala Clinical Research Center, Uppsala, Sweden

    L Byberg

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  1. E Rönnemaa
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Correspondence to E Rönnemaa.

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Rönnemaa, E., Zethelius, B., Vessby, B. et al. Serum fatty-acid composition and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease: a longitudinal population-based study. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 885–890 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.63

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