Bean intake may lower risk of disabling dementia

Dietary consumption of beans appears protective against the risk of disabling dementia in patients without a history of stroke, results of the Circulatory Risk in Communities Study (CIRCS) have shown.

CIRCS included a total of 3,739 individuals aged 40‒64 years. The authors categorized participants into five groups based on their dietary bean intake estimated by a 24-h dietary recall.

Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for potential confounding factors including smoking, drinking, and intakes of energy and fish, were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs) of disabling dementia.

The number of disabling dementia cases observed over 59,681 person-years follow-up was 670. Bean intake showed a weak inverse association with the risk of disabling dementia.

The multivariable HRs for the four groups with higher bean intake, compared with the lowest group, were 0.79 (95 percent CI, 0.62‒1.00), 0.80 (95 percent CI, 0.63‒1.01), 0.84 (95 percent CI, 0.67‒1.06), and 0.78 (95 percent CI, 0.62‒0.99, respectively (p=0.21 for trend).

Notably, bean intake showed a significant inverse association with dementia without a stroke history. The HRs for the four groups with higher bean intake were 0.81 (95 percent CI, 0.61‒1.08), 0.70 (95 percent CI, 0.52‒0.95), 0.71 (95 percent CI, 0.52‒0.95), and 0.69 (95 percent CI, 0.51‒0.92), respectively (p=0.03 for trend). Such association did not exist for dementia with a stroke history.

In addition, increased natto intake had an inverse relationship with the risk of disabling dementia (p=0.003 for trend), but not tofu intake (p=0.19 for trend).