Deeksha Pharasi
The current study's objective was to determine whether, in a representative cohort of older people, a Total Lifestyle Index (TLI), which includes adherence to the Mediterranean diet, sleep duration, physical activity, and participation in activities of daily living, is associated with long-term cognitive health and dementia risk. The HELIAD study comprised 1018 community-dwelling older individuals 65 years old who were not demented, 60% of whom were women. A dementia diagnosis was made following a thorough neurological and neuropsychological evaluation of cognitive functioning at baseline and three years later. At the outset, conventional, validated questionnaires were used to measure diet, exercise, sleep duration, and participation in daily activities. At the follow-up, 61 people had dementia; these individuals were older and had fewer years of education than those with normal cognition. Participants with normal cognition at follow-up scored higher in each of the individual lifestyle characteristics than those who developed dementia, except for sleep duration. Participants with dementia had lower TLI ratings than participants with normal cognition. The Global Cognition score decreased by 0.5% of a standard deviation less annually for each extra unit of the TLI, but the risk of dementia decreased by 0.2% annually for each more unit of the TLI (p 0.05). Our findings imply that higher adherence to a healthy living pattern is linked to a slower loss of cognitive function and a lower chance of developing dementia.