(The FASEB Journal. 2013;27:840.13)
Vitamin K and cognitive function in healthy older adults. The NuAge Study
Guylaine Ferland
Evidence is accumulating from in vitro and rodent studies that vitamin K plays a role in brain and could have a positive effect on cognitive function, especially during aging. The present study examined cross-sectional associations between vitamin K status and cognitive performance in 320 cognitively-healthy men and women aged 70–85 y from the Québec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Successful Aging. Vitamin K status was measured as serum phylloquinone concentrations. Verbal and non-verbal episodic memory, executive functions, and speed of processing were assessed using 13 cognitive scores from 6 tests. The median serum phylloquinone concentration was 1.06 nmol/L (range, 0.08–23.57 nmol/L). After adjustment for covariates including diet quality and serum lipid profile, higher serum phylloquinone concentration (log-transformed) was associated with better cognitive scores (Z-transformed) on the second (β = 0.47; 95% CI = 0.13 to 0.82), the third (β = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.06 to 0.75), and the 20-min delayed (β = 0.47; 95% CI = 0.12 to 0.82) trials of the RL/RI-16 Free and Cued Recall Task, a test of verbal episodic memory. No associations were found with non-verbal episodic memory, executive functions, and speed of processing. Overall, our study provides evidence for a role of vitamin K in episodic verbal memory among healthy older adults.