Associations of anti-inflammatory diet with cognitive impairment, physical dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and Multimorbidity in Chinese elderly: a national community-based study

OBJECTIVE: The health effects of anti-inflammatory diets have been less studied in the Chinese elderly. We aimed to investigate the association of an anti-inflammatory diet on cognitive function, physical function, depressive status, and multimorbidity. METHODS: A total of 11,123 participants aged 65 years and older from the 2017-2019 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) were included in this cross-sectional study. The anti-inflammatory diet was assessed by asking about the frequency of food consumption at around age 60. We used logistic regression to explore the associations of the anti-inflammatory diet with cognitive impairment, physical dysfunction, depressive symptoms, multimorbidity, and restricted cubic spline to determine whether the relationships were nonlinear. Results were expressed using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: The prevalence of cognitive impairment, physical dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and multimorbidity in the Chinese elderly were 20.73%, 24.95%, 16.13%, and 16.11%, respectively. The restricted cubic spline showed significant negative linear associations between the anti-inflammatory diet and cognitive impairment, physical dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and multimorbidity. After multivariate adjustment, compared with the high-frequency anti-inflammatory diet (Q4), the low-frequency group (Q1) had higher odds of cognitive impairment (OR = 1.41, 95%CI: 1.21-1.64), physical dysfunction (OR = 1.23, 95%CI: 1.06-1.42), depressive symptoms (OR = 1.19, 95%CI: 1.01-1.40), and multimorbidity (OR = 1.33, 95%CI: 1.12-1.58). CONCLUSIONS: Regular anti-inflammatory diets may have potential benefits in protecting against cognitive impairment, physical dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and multimorbidity, and rational dietary modification may be an effective strategy for preventing aging-related health problems in older adults.