Clinical Nutrition
Clinical Nutrition
5 years ago

Dietary inflammatory index and mental health: A cross-sectional analysis of the relationship with depressive symptoms, anxiety and well-being in adults

The relationship between diet, inflammation and mental health is of increasing interest. However, limited data regarding the role of dietary inflammatory potential in this context exist. Therefore the aim of this work was to examine associations between the inflammatory potential of habitual diet and mental health outcomes in a cross-sectional sample of 2047 adults (50.8% female). Methods Diet was assessed using a self-completed food frequency questionnaire from which dietary inflammatory index (DII®) scores were determined. Depressive symptoms, anxiety and well-being were assessed using the CES-D, HADS-A and WHO-5 screening tools. Results Logistic regression analyses revealed that higher energy-adjusted DII (E-DII®) scores, reflecting a more pro-inflammatory diet, were associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms (odds ratios (OR) 1.70, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.23–2.35, p = 0.001) and anxiety (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.15–2.24, p = 0.006) and lower likelihood of well-being (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.46–0.83, p = 0.001), comparing highest to lowest tertile of E-DII. In gender-stratified analyses associations were noted in women only. Women with the highest E-DII scores were at elevated risk of depressive symptoms (OR 2.29, 95% CI 1.49–3.51, p < 0.001) and anxiety (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.30–3.06, p = 0.002), while likelihood of reporting good well-being was lower (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.36–0.79, p = 0.002), relative to those with the lowest E-DII scores. Conclusions These findings, which suggest that a pro-inflammatory diet is associated with adverse mental health, may be of clinical and public health significance regarding the development of novel nutritional psychiatry approaches to promote good mental health.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0261561417303126

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.