Dietary choline and betaine intake minimally impacts rate of annualized cognitive performance throughout the menopause transition: data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation

Abstract

Abstract Objective Dietary choline is associated with lower risk of dementia in older adults, yet this association during mid-life remains unknown. Given that menopause reflects a nutrition-sensitive time point where prevention strategies may mitigate cognitive deficits, we examined the relationship of choline, betaine, and egg intakes (ie, dietary exposures) with cognitive performance in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) cohort (N = 1,006). Methods SWAN is a longitudinal study of women across the menopause transition. Diet was assessed via modified Block food frequency questionnaire, and cognitive function was examined using the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Digits Backward Test, and East Boston Memory Test (EBMT). Annualized rate of cognitive scores and quartiles of diet were computed using linear mixed models overall (all diet exposures) and by baseline menopausal status (choline, betaine only). Results Among all women, higher choline (P-for-trend = 0.006) and betaine (P-for-trend = 0.005) intakes, independently and combined (ie, choline + betaine; P-for-trend = 0.001), were significantly associated with reduced rate of change on the EBMT–Delayed Recall (DR), but egg intake did not consistently impact cognitive function. By menopausal status, higher betaine, but not choline, was associated with a lower annualized rate of change in cognitive performance on the EBMT-DR (mean difference [95% confidence interval]; Q1: referent vs Q4: −0.071 [−0.17, 0.03]; P-for-trend = 0.006) for early perimenopausal women; nevertheless, choline and betaine were not associated with cognitive function among premenopausal women. Conclusions Higher dietary betaine intake among early perimenopausal women and higher dietary intakes of betaine and choline, independently and combined, among all women, were minimally associated with the trajectory of verbal episodic memory, yet no associations between diet and cognition were observed among premenopausal women. Future research should address the relationship between dietary intake and cognition during menopause in other research settings and cohorts.