Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Klinik für Dermatologie, Venerologie und Allergologie, Charitéplatz 1, 10117Berlin, Germany.
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Psychologie, Braunschweig, Germany.
Public Health Nutr. 2019 Mar;22(4):689-696. doi: 10.1017/S1368980018002525. Epub 2018 Oct 8.
Consumption 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.
Representative 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.
Fruit 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.
Consumption 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.
已证实，水果和蔬菜的摄入有助于改善来自西方工业化国家的老年人的心理健康和认知能力。然而，其对非西方发展中国家老年人的影响是否具有可复制性还不得而知。因此，本研究旨在探讨水果和蔬菜的摄入对来自中国、印度、墨西哥、俄罗斯、南非和加纳的老年人的心理健康和认知能力的影响。
具有代表性的横断面和跨国研究。
设置/对象：我们使用了 2007 年至 2010 年期间进行的世界卫生组织全球老龄化和成人健康研究（SAGE）的数据。我们的最终样本量包括 28078 名参与者。
水果和蔬菜的摄入可预测老年人认知能力的提高，包括提高言语记忆、延迟言语记忆、数字跨度测试表现和言语流畅性；与蔬菜摄入相比，水果摄入的效果更强。关于心理健康，水果摄入与更好的主观生活质量和更少的抑郁症状显著相关；然而，蔬菜摄入与心理健康没有显著关系。
非西方发展中国家的老年人摄入水果与认知和心理健康的改善有关，而摄入蔬菜仅与认知健康有关。增加水果和蔬菜的摄入可能是改善非西方发展中国家老年人整体健康和生活质量的一种简单且具有成本效益的方法。
