ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1571990
Associations between nutritional status and cognitive impairment in older adults: Results from the NHANES 2011-2014 cycles
Provisionally accepted
Xuehe Zhang1
Long Yang2
Zhong Wang1Hanxiao Wang1Shiyu Nie1
Chunxiu Zhao1Shengnan Kang1Chuan Zhang1*
Chuanliang Pan1*- 1Chengdu Third People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
- 2First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Region, China
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The Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is used to assess nutritional status. Given that malnutrition increases the risk of cognitive dysfunction, this study aimed to clarify the relationship between the CONUT score and cognitive dysfunction in older adults.: Older adults aged 60-80 years in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles were included in this study. Cognitive dysfunction was identified according to three different cognitive assessment methods. The degree of malnutrition was assessed by calculating the CONUT score and categorized into normal nutrition (CONUT 0-1) and malnutrition (CONUT 2-12) groups based on the score. Independentassociations between the CONUT score and cognitive impairment were examined using logistic regression, while nonlinear associations between the CONUT score and cognitive impairment were investigated using restricted cubic splines (RCS).The mean participant age was 69.19 years, and approximately 1478 participants (53.6%) had cognitive impairment. According to the CONUT score, the incidence of cognitive impairment was significantly greater in the nonnormal CONUT group. According to the adjusted logistic regression analysis, the CONUT score was associated with cognitive impairment (OR: 1.133, 95% CI: 1.052, 1.221; P=0.002). Cognitive impairment was also associated with the malnutrition group (OR: 1.259, 95% CI: 1.039,1.524; P=0.021). RCS analysis revealed L-shaped associations between the CONUT score and cognitive impairment (nonlinear p <0.001).Elevated CONUT scores are associated with an increased prevalence of cognitive impairment in older adults, potentially aiding in identifying individuals at risk of cognitive decline.
Keywords: Controlling nutritional status, cognitive, older adults, NHANES, Cross-sectional study
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yang, Wang, Wang, Nie, Zhao, Kang, Zhang and Pan. 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:
Chuan Zhang, Chengdu Third People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
Chuanliang Pan, Chengdu Third People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
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