Fish consumption and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids from diet are positively associated with cognitive function in older adults even in the presence of exposure to lead, cadmium, selenium, and methylmercury: a cross-sectional study using NHANES 2011-2014 data.

Background: Long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFAs) are reported to be beneficial for cognition, but limited consumption of some fish is recommended due to high concentrations of heavy metals and persistent organics.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether dietary ω-3 PUFAs from fish consumption are associated with higher cognitive scores in older adults and explored the associations of mixtures of ω-3 PUFAs and blood concentrations of lead, cadmium, selenium, and methylmercury on cognitive performance.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with data from the NHANES 2011-2014, assessing cognitive scores of immediate recall, delayed recall, and executive function in adults ≥60 y (n = 3123). We performed multivariate linear regressions and mixture models utilizing the quantile-based g-computation method to identify associations between monthly fish consumption or dietary ω-3 PUFAs with blood concentrations of lead, cadmium, methyl mercury, and selenium on cognitive scores.

Results: Fish consumption had significant positive associations with all 3 cognitive scores, whereas dietary ω-3 PUFAs were only significantly associated with the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) scores. Mixture analysis showed significant positive associations with DSST scores for fish consumption (β: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.48, 1.29) and dietary ω-3 PUFAs (β: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.78) with positive component weights for fish consumption, dietary ω-3 PUFAs, and blood selenium and negative component weight for blood cadmium concentrations.

Conclusions: Our findings support dietary recommendations for older adults to consume fish to maintain cognitive function, likely due to biomolecular actions of ω-3 PUFAs that increase neuronal membrane fluidity, have antioxidation activity, and restore cell damage. The combination of selenium and fish consumption or ω-3 PUFAs was associated with reduced decline in cognitive scores and less negative associations from exposures to lead, cadmium, and mercury compounds.