Association of antioxidants use with the risk of dementia among community-dwelling adults in the United Kingdom biobank

Xianwen Shang; Jiahao Liu; Xueli Zhang; Yu Huang; Zhuoting Zhu; Shulin Tang; Wei Wang; Zongyuan Ge; Honghua Yu; Mingguang He

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1270179

Association of antioxidants use with the risk of dementia among community-dwelling adults in the United Kingdom biobank

Front Nutr. 2024 Jan 4:10:1270179. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1270179. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xianwen Shang^{1

2}, Jiahao Liu², Xueli Zhang¹, Yu Huang¹, Zhuoting Zhu^{1

2}, Shulin Tang¹, Wei Wang³, Zongyuan Ge⁴, Honghua Yu¹, Mingguang He^{1

2

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences), Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
² Center for Eye Research Australia, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
³ State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Monash e-Research Center, Faculty of Engineering, Airdoc Research, Nvidia AI Technology Research Center, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁵ Experimental Ophthalmology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

Background: Data regarding the association between antioxidant supplementation and incident dementia are limited.

Methods: We included 494,632 adults (54.5% females) aged 40-71 years at baseline from the United Kingdom Biobank in the final analysis. Incident dementia was ascertained using hospital inpatient and death records up to January 2021.

Results: Over a median follow-up of 11.9 years, 7,128 new cases of all-cause dementia, 2,772 cases of Alzheimer's disease, and 1,397 cases of vascular dementia were recorded. The hazard ratio (95% CI) for incident dementia associated with zinc supplementation was 0.84 (0.74-0.96), and the association remained significant after adjusting for all confounders (0.84 (0.74-0.96)). In the full model, zinc supplementation was associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease [HR (95% CI): 0.71 (0.57-0.88)]. There was no significant association between zinc supplementation and the risk of vascular dementia. No significant associations with incident dementia were observed for other antioxidant supplementation. The association between zinc supplementation and incident dementia was significant among individuals with [HR (95% CI): 0.34 (0.15-0.77)] and without cataract [0.87 (0.77-0.99)] but it was stronger among those with cataract (p value for interaction = 0.0271).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that zinc supplementation may help reduce the risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease in middle-aged or older adults, especially among those with cataracts.

Keywords: dementia; moderation analysis; vitamin C supplement; vitamin E supplement; zinc supplement.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study was in part supported by Global STEM Professorship Scheme (P0046113). XZ receives GDPH Supporting Fund for Talent Program (KJ2020633) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32200545). ZZ is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 82101173) and the Research Foundation of Medical Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (Grant No. B2021237). HY receives support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81870663, 82171075), the Outstanding Young Talent Trainee Program of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (KJ012019087), Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital Scientific Research Funds for Leading Medical Talents and Distinguished Young Scholars in Guangdong Province (KJ012019457), and Talent Introduction Fund of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (Y012018145). MH receives support from the High-level Talent Flexible Introduction Fund of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (No. KJ012019530). MH also receives support from the Australian Government (MRFF: MRFAI000035), the University of Melbourne at Research Accelerator Program and the CERA Foundation. The sponsor or funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research.