Flexitarian dietary patterns and neuropsychiatric multimorbidity among the oldest-old in China.
Flexitarian diets associated with higher odds of neuropsychiatric multimorbidity in older adults
Flexitarian dietary patterns and neuropsychiatric multimorbidity among the oldest-old in China.
Flexitarian dietary patterns, characterized by diets mainly based on plant foods with limited intake of animal-source foods, have attracted growing interest as a sustainable and potentially healthy eating approach.
This study aimed to investigate the associations between flexitarian dietary patterns and neuropsychiatric outcomes among older Chinese adults.
Data were derived from 11,437 community-dwelling Chinese adults aged 65 years and older participating in the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey.
flexitarian eating linked to greater odds of combined depression and cognitive impairment
Higher odds were mainly observed among pesco-flexitarians (OR 1.92, 95% CI 1.28-2.89) and vegan-flexitarians (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.10-2.09).
Flexitarian dietary patterns were also linked to increased odds of depression (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.09-1.33) and cognitive impairment (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.10-1.50) when examined separately, with the strongest associations seen in vegan-flexitarians.
In this nationally representative sample of older Chinese adults, flexitarian dietary patterns were not associated with better neuropsychiatric health and were instead linked to higher odds of depression, cognitive impairment, and their co-occurrence.
These results suggest that plant-forward diets in the oldest-old should place greater emphasis on overall dietary quality and nutrient adequacy.