ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1461852
The association of dietary essential trace elements and mixture with cognition: A prospective study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- 2The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
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Background: The associations of dietary essential trace elements (ETEs) as well as their mixture with cognition are unclear. Methods: The prospective cohort data of dietary ETEs [iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), selenium (Se), iodine (I)] and general cognition were obtained from UK Biobank database. Linear regression and restricted cubic splines were used to examine the associations of individual dietary ETE with general cognition as well as the inflection points. The Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) model was applied to analyze the association of mixture of six ETEs with general cognition and the potential interactions among ETEs. We also conducted stratified analysis and sensitivity analyses. Results: Significant nonlinear association between individual dietary ETE and general cognition was found, with the inflection point of Fe:15 mg/day, Zn:10 mg/day, Cu:1.5 mg/day, I:250 μg/day, Mn:5 mg/day, and Se:45 μg/day. The BKMR analysis showed an inverted "U"-shaped association between dietary ETEs mixture and general cognition, with Fe and Zn playing major roles. Dietary Mn was the major contributor in males, while Zn was predominant in females. In the hypertensive population, dietary Zn and Mn played major roles. Conclusions: There are nonlinear associations of dietary Fe, Zn, Cu, I, Mn, Se, as well as their mixture with general cognition. Fe and Zn play major roles within this mixture. Besides, there are sex differences in main contributing ETE (males: Mn, females: Zn). Moderate intake of dietary ETEs may help delay cognitive decline.
Keywords: BKMR, Cognition, Essential trace element, old adults, UK Biobank
Received: 09 Jul 2024; Accepted: 11 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Yin, Cui, Wang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Weijing Wang, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
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