Meat intake frequency and its associations with incident dementia and cognitive performance: Findings from the UK Biobank

Background Evidence linking meat intake to dementia and cognitive performance remains mixed, and the results may depend on how meat intake is defined and modelled. Our study aimed to examine the associations between baseline meat intake frequency and (1) incident all-cause dementia during follow-up and (2) baseline cognitive performance in the UK Biobank. Methods We analysed UK Biobank 493,644 participants without prevalent dementia at baseline. Meat intake frequency was derived from touchscreen dietary questions on five meat types (processed meat, poultry, beef, lamb/mutton, pork) and defined using the maximum reported frequency across meat types. The primary exposure contrasted high-frequency versus low-frequency intake. Incident all-cause dementia was assessed through follow-up and analysed via Cox proportional hazards models with age as the underlying time scale, excluding dementia cases occurring within the first year after baseline. Baseline cognitive performance (reaction time, numeric memory, fluid intelligence) was analysed via linear regression. Several sensitivity analyses were additionally conducted to test the robustness. Dose-response analyses used five categories of maximum meat frequency (never for all meat types; <1 times/week; ≥1 times/week; ≥2–4 times/week; ≥5–6 times/week). Results Over a mean follow-up of 14 ± 2.4 years, 10,952 incident dementia cases occurred. According to the fully adjusted model, high-frequency meat intake was associated with higher dementia risk (HR 1.21; 95% CI 1.13–1.31) and results were consistent across sensitivity analyses. For cognition, high-frequency meat intake was associated with slightly slower reaction time (n = 489,151; β = 0.036 SD, ~ 4 ms), whereas associations with numeric memory were small and attenuated in sensitivity analyses (n = 50,933; β = −0.068) and fluid intelligence was null after multivariable adjustment (n = 163,390). Conclusions Higher meat intake frequency—particularly ≥ 5–6 times/week—was associated with increased dementia risk, whereas associations with baseline cognitive performance were modest and outcome specific. Further analyses that incorporate repeated cognitive assessments may help clarify whether meat intake is associated with cognitive trajectories over time.