ArticlePublic health nutrition2019
Fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with improved mental and cognitive health in older adults from non-Western developing countries.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Effectiveness of a Two-Year Multicomponent Intervention for the Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Older People.Nutrients · 2022Trial
- Dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, polyunsaturated fats, and fish and positive psychological well-being in older adults: A cross-sectional analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).British journal of health psychology · 2025Article
- Association of major dietary patterns with obesity, hypertension, and cognitive function in older adults: A cross-sectional study.Health promotion perspectives · 2025Article
- Article
- Impact of Physical Activity and Dietary Habits on Mental Well-Being in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Zero vegetable or fruit consumption and its associated factors among children aged 6 to 23 months in Kenya: a multilevel analysis of a large population-based survey.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
- Association of Vegetable and Fruit Consumption Patterns with Cognitive Function in Older People with Different BMI Ranges: Findings from China.Clinical interventions in aging · 2025Article
- The relationship between dietary patterns derived from inflammation and cognitive impairment in patients undergoing hemodialysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Article
- Secular Improvements in Cognitive Aging: Contribution of Education, Health, and Routine Activities.Journal of aging and health · 2022Article
- Associations of specific types of fruit and vegetables with perceived stress in adults: the AusDiab study.European journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- Plants, Plants, and More Plants: Plant-Derived Nutrients and Their Protective Roles in Cognitive Function, Alzheimer's Disease, and Other Dementias.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Review
- Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Cognitive Disorders in Older Adults: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
- Microbial Therapeutics in Neurocognitive and Psychiatric Disorders.Journal of clinical medicine research · 2021Review
- Geriatric malnutrition and depression: Evidence from elderly home care population in Bangladesh.Preventive medicine reports · 2021Article
- Decline of depressive symptoms in Europe: differential trends across the lifespan.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2021Article
- Dietary, physical exercises and mental stress in a Chinese population: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Going with the grain: Fiber, cognition, and the microbiota-gut-brain-axis.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2021Review
- Associations of Lifestyle Factors With Cognition in Community-Dwelling Adults Aged 50 and Older: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesConsumption of fruits and vegetables has been shown to contribute to mental and cognitive health in older adults from Western industrialized countries. However, it is unclear whether this effect replicates in older adults from non-Western developing countries. Thus, the present study examined the contribution of fruit and vegetable consumption to mental and cognitive health in older persons from China, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Ghana.
designRepresentative cross-sectional and cross-national study.Setting/SubjectsWe used data from the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), sampled in 2007 to 2010. Our final sample size included 28 078 participants.
resultsFruit and vegetable consumption predicted an increased cognitive performance in older adults including improved verbal recall, improved delayed verbal recall, improved digit span test performance and improved verbal fluency; the effect of fruit consumption was much stronger than the effect of vegetable consumption. Regarding mental health, fruit consumption was significantly associated with better subjective quality of life and less depressive symptoms; vegetable consumption, however, did not significantly relate to mental health.
conclusionsConsumption of fruits is associated with both improved cognitive and mental health in older adults from non-Western developing countries, and consumption of vegetables is associated with improved cognitive health only. Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption might be one easy and cost-effective way to improve the overall health and quality of life of older adults in non-Western developing countries.
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