Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug 1;82(8):801-809.
doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.1230.

Sweetened Beverages and Incident All-Cause Dementia Among Older Adults

Hui Chen  1   2 , Yihong Ding  1 , Klodian Dhana  3   4 , Puja Agarwal  4   5 , Todd Beck  3   4 , Kumar B Rajan  3   4   5 , Debora Melo van Lent  6   7   8 , Yuan Ma  9 , Geng Zong  10 , Kjetil Bjornevik  2   9 , Changzheng Yuan  1   2
Affiliations

Sweetened Beverages and Incident All-Cause Dementia Among Older Adults

Hui Chen et al. JAMA Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Importance: Intake of sweetened beverages, including sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and artificially sweetened beverages (ASB), has been linked to multiple health outcomes, but their associations with dementia risk among older adults are unclear.

Objective: To assess whether the consumption of SSB and ASB is associated with the risk of all-cause dementia in older adults.

Design, setting, and participants: This multicohort study examined data from US adults aged 65 and older enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study (2013), the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (1987-1995), the Chicago Healthy and Aging Project (1993-2012), the Rush Memory and Aging Project (1997-2005), the Framingham Heart Study original cohort (1986-1994), and its offspring cohort (1991-2001). Data were analyzed from May 27 to September 24, 2024.

Exposures: SSB and ASB intake was assessed using validated food frequency questionnaires.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was all-cause dementia ascertained at least 2 years after baseline from active research follow-ups and passive surveillance. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to assess the associations of SSB and ASB with incident dementia.

Results: Of 10 974 participants (60.0% female, mean [SD] age: 73.2 [6.8] years), 2445 developed incident all-cause dementia over 116 067 person-years of follow-up. Consumption of SSB and ASB in older adulthood was not associated with dementia risk in later life. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) per serving per week for SSB was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.98-1.01; P = .18; I2 = 0%) and for ASB was 1.00 (95% CI, 0.99-1.01; P = .99; I2 = 1%). The pooled HRs comparing the highest (≥1 serving per day) with lowest (0 to <1 serving per month) consumption groups were 0.90 (95% CI, 0.78-1.03) for SSB and 1.00 (95% CI, 0.83-1.21) for ASB. These findings were similar across cohorts and subgroups. In contrast, an inverse association was observed for the Mediterranean diet score (HR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.85-0.99 per 5-unit increment) as a positive control.

Conclusions and relevance: In this study, late-life consumption of SSB or ASB was not associated with the risk of dementia. However, given their detrimental effects on metabolic health and related chronic diseases during early life and midlife, the effects of early-life consumption of SSB and ASB on the risk of dementia warrant further investigation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Dhana reported grants from National Institute on Aging paid to institution and grants from Alzheimer’s Association paid to institution outside the submitted work. Dr Agarwal reported grants from National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Aging (NIH/NIA) during the conduct of the study; and grants from Alzheimer’s Association outside the submitted work. Dr Rajan reported grants from NIH R01AG058679 and grants from NIH R01AG073627 during the conduct of the study. Dr Melo van Lent reported grants from NIH NIA and grants from Alzheimer’s Association during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

References

    1. Livingston G, Huntley J, Liu KY, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet Standing Commission. Lancet. 2024;404(10452):572-628. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01296-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. GBD 2019 Dementia Forecasting Collaborators . Estimation of the global prevalence of dementia in 2019 and forecasted prevalence in 2050: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet Public Health. 2022;7(2):e105-e125. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00249-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Risk Reduction of Cognitive Decline and Dementia . WHO Guidelines. World Health Organization; 2019. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542796/ - PubMed
    1. Morris MC. Nutrition and risk of dementia: overview and methodological issues. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016;1367(1):31-37. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13047 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu YH, Gao X, Na M, Kris-Etherton PM, Mitchell DC, Jensen GL. Dietary Pattern, Diet Quality, and Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. J Alzheimers Dis. 2020;78(1):151-168. doi: 10.3233/JAD-200499 - DOI - PubMed