Disability in older adults is associated with low quality of life and higher mortality. Diet may be a potentially important public health strategy for disability prevention. We examined the relations of the Mediterranean, DASH and MIND diets to functional disability in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. A total of 874 participants without functional disability at baseline were assessed annually over 12 years of follow-up using standardized measures for self-reported activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living and the Rosow-Breslau measure of mobility disability. The diet scores were computed based on a validated food frequency questionnaire administered at baseline. We examined relations between diet and disability using proportional hazard models adjusted for age, sex, education and total calories. Higher scores of the MIND (HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.83–0.94), Mediterranean (HR=0.96, 95% CI 0.94–0.98), and DASH (HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.82–0.95) diets were associated with decreased hazard of incident disability in activities of daily living. Only the MIND (HR=0.91, 95% CI 0.86–0.97) and Mediterranean (HR=0.97, 95% CI 0.94–0.99) diets were associated with reduced hazard of disability in instrumental activities of daily living. All three dietary patterns were associated with decreased hazard of mobility disability (MIND, HR=0.88 95% CI 0.83–0.94; Mediterranean, HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.83–0.94; DASH, HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.83–0.94). The findings did not change after further adjustment for BMI, depression, physical activity and vascular diseases, except for mobility disability, which became non-significant. These findings are encouraging that diet may be an effective strategy for the prevention of functional disability.
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