Mid‐life adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and late‐life subjective cognitive complaints in women

Abstract INTRODUCTION Evidence is limited on the role of mid‐life Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet in late‐life subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs). METHODS We included 5116 women (mean age in 1985–1991: 46 years) from the New York University Women's Health Study. SCCs were assessed from 2018 to 2020 (mean age: 79 years) by a 6‐item questionnaire. RESULTS Compared to women in the bottom quartile of the DASH scores, the odds ratio (OR) for having two or more SCCs was 0.83 (95% confidence interval: 0.70–0.99) for women in the top quartile of DASH scores at baseline ( P for trend = 0.019). The association was similar with multiple imputation and inverse probability weighting to account for potential selection bias. The inverse association was stronger in women without a history of cancer ( P for interaction = 0.003). DISCUSSION Greater adherence to the DASH diet in mid‐life was associated with lower prevalence of late‐life SCCs in women.