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Nutrition and Health (including climate and ecological aspects)

Dietary intake of beans and risk of disabling dementia: The Circulatory Risk in Communities Study (CIRCS)

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 77, pages 65–70 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To examine whether bean intake (including soybeans) among Japanese adults is associated with risk of disabling dementia severe enough to require care under the national insurance system.

Methods

This cohort study involved 3739 individuals aged 40 to 64 years. The participants were categorized into five groups based on their dietary bean intake estimated by a 24h dietary recall. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of disabling dementia were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for potential confounding factors (smoking, drinking, and intakes of energy and fish).

Results

During the 59,681 person-year follow-up, 670 cases of disabling dementia were observed. A weak inverse association between bean intake and risk of disabling dementia was found; the multivariable hazard ratios (95% CIs) were 0.79 (0.62–1.00), 0.80 (0.63–1.01), 0.84 (0.67–1.06), and 0.78 (0.62–0.99) for the four groups with higher bean intake, respectively, compared with the lowest group (P for trend = 0.21). A significant inverse association was observed for dementia without a history of stroke; for the four groups with higher bean intake the multivariable hazard ratios were 0.81 (0.61–1.08), 0.70 (0.52–0.95), 0.71 (0.52–0.95), and 0.69 (0.51–0.92), respectively, (P for trend = 0.03). No such association was observed for dementia with history of stroke. The group with increased natto intake were inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia (P for trend = 0.003), but tofu intake was not (P for trend = 0.19).

Conclusions

Bean intake was inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia in those without a history of stroke.

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Fig. 1: The total number of participants was 3739: 1319 in Ikawa, 725 in Minami-Takayasu, 1695 in Kyowa.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and with the permission of the CIRCS committee.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the healthcare staff of the Ikawa, Minami-Takayasu, and Kyowa communities. The full list of CIRCS investigators is presented in ref. [13]. The authors would also like to thank Thomas Mayers of the Medical English Communications Center, University of Tsukuba, for language revision.

Funding

This study was partly supported by Health and Labour Science Research Grants for Dementia (grant numbers: H21-Ninchisho-Wakate-007 and H24-Ninchisho-Wakate-003) from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan; JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers 26253043, 17H04121, 18K10097 and 21H03194; Japan FULLHAPP; and the Osaka University International Joint Research Promotion Programme with University College London.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Services Research and Development Center, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Rie Kishida & Kazumasa Yamagishi

  2. Osaka Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Osaka, Japan

    Kazumasa Yamagishi, Yuji Shimizu, Hironori Imano, Takeo Okada & Masahiko Kiyama

  3. Ibaraki Western Medical Center, Chikusei, Japan

    Kazumasa Yamagishi

  4. Department of Bioscience, Graduate School of Agriculture, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Japan

    Koutatsu Maruyama

  5. Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan

    Chika Okada, Mari Tanaka, Isao Muraki, Hironori Imano & Hiroyasu Iso

  6. Department of Public Health, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Osakasayama, Japan

    Mari Tanaka & Hironori Imano

  7. Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan

    Ai Ikeda

  8. Yao City Public Health Center, Osaka, Japan

    Mina Hayama-Terada & Akihiko Kitamura

  9. Department of Public Health, Dokkyo Medical University, Mibu, Japan

    Mitsumasa Umesawa

  10. Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, University College London, London, UK

    Eric J. Brunner

  11. Department of Public Health and Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Tomoko Sankai

  12. Institute of Global Health Policy Research, Bureau of International Health Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Hiroyasu Iso

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Contributions

Conception and design of the study: RK, KY, and H Iso. Analysis of data: RK. Drafting the article: RK, KY, and H Iso; Critical revision of paper: KM, CO, MT, AI, MH, YS, IM, MU, H Imano, EJB, TS, TO, AK, and MK. All authors contributed to the article and have approved the submission of the article for publication.

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Correspondence to Kazumasa Yamagishi.

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Kishida, R., Yamagishi, K., Maruyama, K. et al. Dietary intake of beans and risk of disabling dementia: The Circulatory Risk in Communities Study (CIRCS). Eur J Clin Nutr 77, 65–70 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-022-01188-1

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