Breakfast skipping alone and in interaction with inflammatory based quality of diet increases the risk of higher scores of psychological problems profile in a large sample of Iranian adults.

Fahimeh Haghighatdoost,Peyman Adibi,Ahmad Esmaillzadeh,Hamid Afshar,Ammar Hassanzadeh Keshteli,Awat Feizi

doi:10.1017/jns.2020.62

Abstract

The authors investigate the association of breakfast skipping and its interaction with a dietary inflammatory index (DII) with the severity of psychological disorders. A total of 2876 Iranian general adults were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Psychological problems profile score was calculated using the regression method in the framework of factor analysis based on depression, anxiety and psychological distress. The higher scores indicate more severity of mental problem. The frequency of breakfast eating in a week was assessed. Dietary intakes were assessed using a food-frequency questionnaire and twenty-seven items were included in the calculation of DII. In the crude model, individuals who ate breakfast seldom had the highest odds for having worse psychological problems profile (OR 3⋅59; 95 % CI 2⋅52, 5⋅11). Adjustment for various confounders did not change the associations (OR 3⋅35; 95 % CI 2⋅11, 5⋅32). In the adjusted multinomial logistic regression model, participants with high DII (>median) who skipped breakfast had highest risk of being in the higher tertiles of psychological problems profile compared with those who had low DII (<median) and ate breakfast (OR 6⋅67; 95 % CI 3⋅45, 12⋅90). Similar results were observed in women and men regarding the impact of breakfast skipping alone and interaction with DII on scores of psychological problems profile. Breakfast skipping is associated with higher risk of psychological problems. Similar findings were obtained in the stratified analysis by sex. Our findings confirmed that the DII and breakfast skipping are associated with mental health, interactionally. Further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the true link between breakfast skipping and psychological problems.

Highlights

Based on the World Health Organization reports, the burden of mental disorders will increase to 15 % 2020(1)
The present study found that breakfast skipping is associated with increased risk of higher scores of psychological problems profile in a general population of Iranian adults
Our analyses showed that the breakfast skipping in combination with low diet quality, determined by dietary inflammatory index (DII), more adversely affect the psychological health; in which we observed that those participants who skipped breakfast and ate diet with higher pro-inflammatory content had highest risk of larger psychological problems profile scores

Summary

Introduction

Based on the World Health Organization reports, the burden of mental disorders will increase to 15 % 2020(1). There is evidence that unhealthy eating habits, such as breakfast or dinner skipping and irregular meal patterns may affect metabolic profile[4,5,6,7], brain activity[8,9,10] and mental health status[11,12,13,14,15,16]. The association between breakfast skipping and mental health has been rarely investigated and yielded conflicting evidence. An investigation among adolescents indicated that only a high-quality breakfast, containing at least three food groups, was associated with better mental health[15]. Differences in study populations (age, sex, socioeconomic status, lifestyle and consumed foods especially in breakfast) may explain the conflicting findings

Methods

Results

Conclusion