Fatty fish intake and attention performance in 14-15 year old adolescents: FINS-TEENS - a randomized controlled trial

Katina Handeland, Jannike Øyen, Siv Skotheim, Ingvild E Graff, Valborg Baste, Marian Kjellevold, Livar Frøyland, Øyvind Lie, Lisbeth Dahl, Kjell M Stormark, Katina Handeland, Jannike Øyen, Siv Skotheim, Ingvild E Graff, Valborg Baste, Marian Kjellevold, Livar Frøyland, Øyvind Lie, Lisbeth Dahl, Kjell M Stormark

Abstract

Background: Fatty fish is the dominant dietary source of n-3 LCPUFAs but it also contains other micronutrients considered important for brain development and function. To our knowledge, the effect of fatty fish intake on cognitive function in adolescents has not been investigated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) previously. The aim of the present trial was to investigate whether consumption of fatty fish meals three times per week for 12 weeks could alter attention performance in adolescents compared to similar meals with meat or n-3 LCPUFA supplements.

Methods: In the Fish Intervention Studies-TEENS (FINS-TEENS), adolescents from eight secondary schools (n = 426; age: 14-15y) were individually randomized. Attention performance was assessed with the d2 test of attention. Differences between groups from pre to post intervention were assessed with linear mixed effect models and general estimates equation. The fish group was set as reference. Dietary compliance was recorded for each meal throughout the trial and controlled for in the adjusted analyses.

Results: The improvement in processing speed was significantly lower in the meat (-11.8; 95% CI: -23.3, -0.4) and supplement (-13.4; 95% CI: -24.9, -1.8) group compared to the fish group (reference). The supplement group also showed inferior improvement in total performance (-10.4; 95% CI: -20.0, -0.7) compared to the fish group (reference). The results were slightly affected when controlling for dietary compliance. Omission errors decreased in the meat group compared to the fish group (Incidence rate ratio = 0.85; 95% CI: 0.74, 0.98), but the difference disappeared when controlling for dietary compliance.

Conclusions: We observed a small beneficial effect of fatty fish, compared to meat meals and supplements on processing speed. However, these results are difficult to interpret due to low dietary compliance. This study shows that different taste preferences among participants is challenging in intervention trials with food. A prospective cohort design may be a better alternative when studying diet in the future.

Trial registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT02350322 .

Keywords: Cognition; Dietary intervention; Fatty fish; Food; Meat; Omega-3 fatty acids; Supplements.

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Norwegian Data Protection Official for Research project number: 41030.

Written informed consent to participate in the trial was collected from all participants and one legal parent/caregiver before study start.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart over participants. n-3 = omega-3
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Associations between dietary dietary compliance (the total intake of study meals or supplements, given in %) and the change (post-pre) in: a) total performance (TN-E), b) processing speed (TN) and c) E1 errors (Omission errors) in the d2 test of attention, given for the fish, meat and supplement group. Crude fitted regression line for each intervention group

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