Poor eating habits linked to depressive symptoms

People who practice unhealthy eating habits tend to be at higher risk of depressive symptoms, suggests a Japan study. This association appears to be partially driven by a reduced intake of nutrients with mood-improving effects.

A model adjusted for background factors exhibited a significantly increased likelihood of developing depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR], 2.02, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.21‒3.38) among workers with two to three unhealthy eating habits compared with those having no such behaviours.

This association slightly weakened but remained significant (OR, 1.87, 95 percent CI, 1.10‒3.21) after adjusting for occupational and lifestyle factors. The correlation further decreased and became statistically nonsignificant (OR, 1.67, 95 percent CI, 0.96‒2.90) following further adjustment for nutritional factors.

“Our results suggest that the accumulation of unhealthy eating behaviours is associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms and that this association may be partly ascribed to a lower intake of nutrients with mood-improving effects,” the authors said.

This study included a total of 914 Japanese workers aged 19‒68 years, who did not have depressive symptoms at baseline (April 2012 and May 2013) and attended a 3-year follow-up survey between April 2015 and May 2016.

The authors assessed unhealthy eating behaviours (ie, skipping breakfast, eating dinner just before bedtime, and snacking after dinner) among participants at baseline. They also assessed depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) at follow-up.

The OR of depressive symptoms (CES-D score ≥16) at follow-up based on the number of unhealthy eating habits were calculated using multiple logistic regression.