Multicultural Healthy Diet to Reduce Cognitive Decline
Purpose
This is a pilot randomized controlled clinical trial is designed to investigate whether the Multicultural Healthy Diet (MHD), an anti-Inflammatory diet tailored to a multi-cultural population, can improve cognitive functioning in a middle aged (40-65 yr) urban population in Bronx, New York compared to a usual diet.
Conditions
- Diet Modification
- Cognitive Decline
- Cognitive Change
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Between 40 Years and 65 Years
- Eligible Genders
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- living, working, attending school or visiting Co-op City, Bronx (e.g. for shopping, doctors' visits, etc.) or communities neighboring Co-op City and between 40-65 yr of age - willingness to accept assignment to intervention or comparison diet group - willingness to participate in a study where weight loss is not a primary goal
Exclusion Criteria
- cognitively impaired - history of traumatic brain injury - psychiatric illness - history of diabetes and experiencing hypoglycemia - liver disease - uncontrolled hypertension as defined as blood pressure > 140/90 mm Hg - history of cardiovascular disease that affects physical functioning - severe chronic illness - low literacy - history of alcohol or drug dependence - hematologic disease or malignancy not in remission for more than 5 years - visual, auditory, or motor impairment that precludes cognitive testing. - chronic kidney disease on dialysis or special diet
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel Assignment
- Intervention Model Description
- This is a pilot randomized clinical trial to the effects of an anti-inflammatory diet on cognition in a middle-aged cohort. The comparison arm will receive information on self-care matters such as aches and pains of aging.
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- Single (Outcomes Assessor)
- Masking Description
- The research clinician who assesses cognitive status needs to be blinded to assignment.
Arm Groups
Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
---|---|---|
Active Comparator Anti-inflammatory dietary intervention |
18 month intervention of dietary counseling to adhere to the Multicultural Healthy Diet or the anti-inflammatory diet, |
|
Placebo Comparator Usual Diet plus Self-Care |
18 month intervention of usual diet plus self-care modules |
|
More Details
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Study Contact
Detailed Description
The Multicultural Healthy Diet (MHD) is a pilot randomized controlled clinical trial designed to test the effects of an 18 month intervention on cognitive function among 290 middle-aged individuals (40-65 yr). MHD is an anti-inflammatory diet tailored to a multicultural population. The emphasis of the intervention is on plant-based foods and limited animal and high saturated fat foods with focus on anti-inflammatory foods/food components specific to the cultural context of the participants. The trial will employ a parallel group design comparing the effects of the dietary intervention (MHD) on cognitive status to those of the control diet or usual diet plus modules on self-care matters such as dealing with aches and pains of aging, obtaining a health care proxy ,etc. To show that MHD can be adapted to this population serum biomarkers indicative of the MHD diet pattern such as fatty acid profile as well as other key nutrition biomarkers will be evaluated. Other aims include testing whether the MHD intervention can benefit cognitive function using real-time ambulatory assessments. The investigators will also assess plasma markers of oxidative stress and inflammation. Components of the MHD diet that are associated with stable or improved measures of cognition will also be evaluated. The clinical site for the proposed study is at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; the ambulatory cognitive assessment reading center is at Pennsylvania State University, State College; the statistical core is at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and the laboratory for biospecimen analysis is at the University of Minnesota.