Table 3.
Adjusted associations of childhood meat eating with cognitive function
| Cognitive function as delayed 10-word recall score | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 | ||||
| Childhood meat eating | Adjusted difference in no of words recalled | 95% CI | Adjusted difference in no of words recalled | 95% CI | Adjusted difference in no of words recalled | 95% CI |
| Never or yearlya | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| About once a month | 0.12** | 0.04, 0.20 | 0.008 | −0.07, 0.08 | 0.04 | −0.04, 0.11 |
| About once a week | 0.32*** | 0.24, 0.40 | 0.08* | 0.006, 0.16 | 0.07 | −0.003, 0.15 |
| Almost daily | 0.57*** | 0.47, 0.67 | 0.26*** | 0.16, 0.36 | 0.22*** | 0.11, 0.31 |
| P-value for trend | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||
| Cognitive function as immediate 10-word recall score | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 | ||||
| Childhood meat eating | Adjusted difference in no of words recalled | 95% CI | Adjusted difference in no of words recalled | 95% CI | Adjusted difference in no of words recalled | 95% CI |
| Never or yearlya | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| About once a month | 0.72*** | 0.55, 0.88 | 0.42*** | 0.27, 0.58 | 0.38*** | 0.23, 0.54 |
| About once a week | 1.47*** | 1.31, 1.63 | 0.85*** | 0.69, 1.00 | 0.73*** | 0.56, 0.89 |
| Almost daily | 1.77*** | 1.56, 1.98 | 0.95*** | 0.75, 1.16 | 0.76*** | 0.55, 0.98 |
| P-value for trend | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||
| Cognitive function as presence of amnesic-MCIc | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 | ||||
| IRRb | 95% CI | IRRb | 95% CI | IRRb | 95% CI | |
| Never or yearlya | 1 | – | 1 | – | 1 | – |
| About once a month | 0.88* | 0.80, 0.97 | 0.97 | 0.88, 1.06 | 0.96 | 0.87, 1.05 |
| About once a week | 0.65*** | 0.59 0.72 | 0.81*** | 0.73, 0.90 | 0.84** | 0.75, 0.93 |
| Almost daily | 0.57*** | 0.49, 0.67 | 0.78** | 0.67, 0.92 | 0.86 | 0.73, 1.01 |
| P-value for trend | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.002 | |||
Model 1: adjusted for age and sex
Model 2: additionally adjusted for education
Model 3: additionally adjusted for childhood and adulthood SEP, and current physical activity
a Reference category
b Incident rate ratio for amnesic mild cognitive impairment, with normal cognition as the reference category
c Amnesic mild cognitive impairment defined as delayed 10-word recall score of less than 1.0 SD below the mean (equivalent to delayed 10-word recall score of 3 or less out of 10)
*** P < 0.001; ** P < 0.01; * P < 0.05