More than 8,700 dementia-free adults aged 60 to 85 were followed for just over nine years using UK Biobank data. Participants were grouped by daily coffee and tea consumption—never, moderate (1–3 cups) or high (4+ cups)—and completed tests of memory, reasoning and reaction time. Moderate coffee intake and moderate or high tea intake were associated with a slower decline in fluid intelligence. Consuming four or more cups of coffee correlated with the greatest decline in fluid intelligence. Tea drinkers began with slightly lower baseline fluid intelligence but experienced a slower decline, suggesting a possible protective effect.
Published July 21 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, the longitudinal prospective cohort study followed more than 8,700 dementia-free adults aged 60 to 85.2 over a period of just over nine years, using data from the UK Biobank cohort. After placing study participants into three groups based on daily coffee and tea consumption habits - never, moderate (1-3 cups) or high (4 or more cups) - researchers tracked cognitive performance using several tests of memory, reasoning and reaction time.
The most consistent finding was that people who drank a moderate amount of coffee, or a moderate or high amount of tea, experienced a slower decline in a specific type of reasoning ability known as fluid intelligence, which tends to diminish with age. People who drank 4 or more cups of coffee experienced the greatest decline in fluid intelligence, according to the Australia-based research team.
Interestingly, tea drinkers started off with slightly lower fluid intelligence scores at baseline, but their decline over time was slower - suggesting a potential protective effect. The study reinforces the overall findings of another major study of more than 6,000 older adults led by researchers in China. That study found that coffee drinkers were about 38% less likely to develop dementia within the seven-year study period.
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