Abstract

Background Previous studies of the relationship between diet and depression have focused on single nutrients or food. Recent research suggested that dietary patterns may offer more information than an individual nutrient in assessing disease risk. We designed this study to assess the association between dietary patterns and depressive symptoms in the adult population of China. Methods We identified 372 Chinese residents for this research. Factor analysis was used to extract dietary patterns from 30 predefined food groups. Dietary intake was assessed using an effective self-administered food frequency questionnaire, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) score. Subjects were considered to have depressive symptoms when they had a PHQ-9 score of >4. Results We identified four eating patterns: “vegetables-fruits,” “traditional Chinese,” “pastry-fruits,” and “animal food” dietary patterns. After adjusting for potential confounders, participants in the highest tertile animal food pattern (considered to be an unhealthy pattern) were more prone to depressive symptoms compared with participants in the lowest tertile (OR = 2.08, 95% CI: 1.02-4.24). Conclusions The animal food pattern was associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms.

Highlights

  • Depression has become an important public health problem worldwide [1]

  • The fourth factor was typified by a high consumption of rice, sugarcane, root vegetables, cabbage vegetables, pork, beef, chicken, other meat, beans, aquatic products, egg, and tea; it was named as the animal food pattern

  • Using a sample of the Chinese adult population, we identified four major dietary patterns via factor analysis: traditional Chinese, vegetables-fruits, pastry-fruits, and animal food patterns

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Summary

Background

Previous studies of the relationship between diet and depression have focused on single nutrients or food. Recent research suggested that dietary patterns may offer more information than an individual nutrient in assessing disease risk. We designed this study to assess the association between dietary patterns and depressive symptoms in the adult population of China. Dietary intake was assessed using an effective self-administered food frequency questionnaire, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) score. We identified four eating patterns: “vegetables-fruits,” “traditional Chinese,” “pastry-fruits,” and “animal food” dietary patterns. After adjusting for potential confounders, participants in the highest tertile animal food pattern (considered to be an unhealthy pattern) were more prone to depressive symptoms compared with participants in the lowest tertile (OR = 2:08, 95% CI: 1.02-4.24). The animal food pattern was associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms

Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusions

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