Habitual dairy consumption is inversely associated with depressive and social anxiety symptoms among children and adolescents aged 7–17 years: Findings from a cross-sectional study in Beijing, China

Abstract

BackgroundKnowledge remains limited about dairy consumption and childhood depression and social anxiety, which is our purpose. MethodsA cross-sectional study including children and adolescents aged 7–17 years was conducted in 2020 in Beijing. Depression and social anxiety were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory and the social anxiety scale for children. Habitual dairy consumption was defined as ≥6 days/week. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were employed to analyze the associations between dairy consumption and depression and social anxiety. Subgroup analyses were conducted to test the robustness of the main results. ResultsA total of 1353 participants were included, with a mean age of 12.06 (SD = 3.10) years old. There were 53.58 % habitual dairy consumers and nearly 11.01 % consumed of ≤1 day/week. The prevalence of depression and social anxiety was 14.04 % and 29.64 %. Compared to participants with less dairy intake, the scores of depression and social anxiety in habitual dairy consumers decreased by 1.725 (95 % CI: −2.939, −0.512) and 1.083 (95 % CI: −1.821, −0.345). Correspondingly, habitual dairy consumption was inversely correlated with depression (OR = 0.602, 95%CI: 0.369–0.982) and social anxiety (OR = 0.622, 95%CI: 0.418–0.923). Such inverse associations were more pronounced in younger participants, those without siblings, with higher parental education and higher consumption of fruits or vegetables. LimitationsConclusions about causality remain speculative due to the cross-sectional design. ConclusionsHabitual dairy consumption is inversely associated with childhood depression and social anxiety. A potential attempt could be implemented when recommending dairy products as an adjuvant therapy for childhood mental disorders.