Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age
Abstract:
Background: Studies on diet and depression have focused primarily on individual nutrients. This paper examines the association between dietary patterns and depression using an overall diet approach. Method : Analyses were carried on 3486 participants (26.2% women, mean age 55.6 years) from the Whitehall II prospective cohort, in which two dietary patterns were identified: “whole food (vegetables/fruits/fish) and “processed food” pattern (eg sweetened desserts/fried food/processed meat/refined grains/ high-fat dairy products). Self-reported depression was assessed five years later using the CES-D scale.
Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, participants in the highest tertile of the “whole food” pattern had lower odds of CES-D depression [Odds Ratio=0.74 (95% CI:0.56-0.99)] than those in the lowest tertile. In contrast, high consumption of “processed food” was associated with an increased odds of CES-D depression [Odds Ratio=1.58 (95% CI:1.11-2.23)].
Conclusion: In middle-aged participants, a “processed food” dietary pattern is a risk factor for CES-D depression five years later, while a “whole food” pattern is protective. Declaration of interest: none 2 Research on the association between diet and depression has focused primarily on nutrients such as fatty acids (1-4) and nutrients involved in the homocysteine pathway, e.g. vitamin B6, B9 and B12 (2, 5-7), but the results have been inconclusive. Recent years have seen a move away from analyzing associations between isolated nutrients and health to consideration of the effects of dietary patterns (8). For example, a meta-analysis published in 2008 showed that a greater adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern (high intake of fruits, vegetable, and fish and low intake of meat and dairy product) was associated with a lower incidence of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease (9). However, the health outcomes of that meta-analysis did not include depression and, to the best of our knowledge, no previous prospective study has investigated the association between dietary patterns and the occurrence of depressive symptoms. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the association between dietary patterns derived from a food frequency questionnaire using factor analysis and depression using the CES-D scale in a large British middle-aged population, the Whitehall II study. We were able to control for a large range of socio-demographic variables, health behaviors and health parameters including chronic diseases and cognitive functioning.
Tasnime Akbaraly, Eric Brunner, Jane Ferrie, Michael Marmot, Mika
Kivimaki, Archana Singh-Manoux:The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2009, 195 (5), pp.408-13