Summary: Food insecurity was associated with accelerated cognitive decline and brain aging in older adults.
Source: Penn State
Older adults living with food insecurity are more likely to experience malnutrition, depression and physical limitations that affect how they live. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federally funded nutrition-assistance program in the United States, and research has shown that SNAP has reduced hunger and food insecurity in the general population.
Little evidence is available, however, on how SNAP may impact brain aging in older adults. To bridge this knowledge gap, Muzi Na, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, led a team of researchers who investigated the relationship between food insecurity, SNAP and cognitive decline. They found that food sufficiency and participation in SNAP may help protect against accelerated cognitive decline in older adults.
In a new article published in The Journal of Nutrition, the researchers analyzed a representative sample of 4,578 older adults in the United States using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, 2012-20. Participants reported their experiences with food insecurity and were classified as food sufficient or food insufficient.
The SNAP status was defined as SNAP participants, SNAP-eligible nonparticipants and SNAP-ineligible nonparticipants. The researchers found that food insecure adults experienced cognitive declines more rapidly than their food secure peers.
The researchers identified different trajectories of cognitive decline using food insufficiency status or SNAP status. Rates of cognitive decline were similar in SNAP participants and SNAP-ineligible nonparticipants, both of which were slower than the rate of SNAP-eligible nonparticipants.
The greater cognitive decline rate observed in the food insecure group was equivalent to being 3.8 years older, whereas the greater cognitive decline rate observed in the SNAP-eligible nonparticipant group was equivalent to being 4.5 years older.
“For an aging population, roughly four years of brain aging can be very significant,” Na explained. “These results really point to the importance of food security for people as they age and the value that SNAP can have in improving people’s cognitive health as they age. We need to make sure that people have access to — and encourage them to use — the SNAP program as they age.”
Future studies are warranted to investigate the impact of addressing food insecurity and promoting SNAP participation on cognitive health in older adults, said Na.
Nan Dou of Penn State, Monique Brown of University of South Carolina, Lenis Chen-Edinboro of University of North Carolina Wilmington, Loretta Anderson of University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Alexandra Wennberg of Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm all contributed to this research.
Funding: This research was supported by funding from the Broadhurst Career Development Professorship for the Study of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health.
About this aging, cognition, and poverty research news
Author: Sara LaJeunesse
Source; Penn State
Contact: Sara LaJeunesse – Penn State
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access.
“Food Insufficiency, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Status, and 9-Year Trajectory of Cognitive Function in Older Adults: The Longitudinal National Health and Aging Trends Study, 2012–2020” by Muzi Na et al. Journal of Nutrition
Abstract
Food Insufficiency, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Status, and 9-Year Trajectory of Cognitive Function in Older Adults: The Longitudinal National Health and Aging Trends Study, 2012–2020
Background
Despite findings from cross-sectional studies, how food insecurity experience/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) status relates to cognitive decline over time has not been fully understood.
Objectives
We aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations between food insecurity/SNAP status and cognitive function in older adults (≥65 y).
Methods
Longitudinal data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study 2012–2020 were analyzed (n = 4578, median follow-up years = 5 y). Participants reported food insecurity experience (5-item) and were classified as food sufficient (FS, no affirmative answer) and food insufficient (FI, any affirmative answer). The SNAP status was defined as SNAP participants, SNAP eligible nonparticipants (≤200% Federal Poverty Line, FPL), and SNAP ineligible nonparticipants (>200% FPL). Cognitive function was measured via validated tests in 3 domains, and the standardized domain-specific and combined cognitive function z-scores were calculated. Mixed-effect models with a random intercept were used to study how FI or SNAP status was associated with combined and domain-specific cognitive z-scores over time, adjusting for static and time-varying covariates.
Results
At baseline, 96.3% of the participants were FS and 3.7% were FI. In a subsample (n = 2832), 10.8% were SNAP participants, 30.7% were SNAP eligible nonparticipants, and 58.6% were SNAP ineligible nonparticipants. Compared with the FS group in the adjusted model (FI vs. FS), FI was associated with faster decline in the combined cognitive function scores [−0.043 (−0.055, −0.032) vs. −0.033 (−0.035, −0.031) z-scores per year, P-interaction = 0.064]. Cognitive decline rates (z-scores per year) in the combined score were similar in SNAP participants (β = −0.030; 95% CI: −0.038, −0.022) and SNAP ineligible nonparticipants (β = −0.028; 95% CI: −0.032, −0.024), both of which were slower than the rate in SNAP eligible nonparticipants (β = −0.043; 95% CI: −0.048, −0.038; P-interaction < 0.0001).
Conclusions
Food sufficiency and SNAP participation may be protective factors preventing accelerated cognitive decline in older adults.
