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Association between the Japanese-style diet and low prevalence of depressive symptoms: Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health Study
The correlation between dietary habits and mental health has garnered increasing attention, particularly concerning the Japanese diet, which is noted for its high content of fish, soy products, and green tea. While earlier studies have hinted at a connection between Japanese dietary patterns and depressive symptoms, findings remain disparate, largely due to limited research on specific dietary frameworks. This research aimed to quantify associations between traditional and modified Japanese diets and depressive symptoms within a large working population.
Conducted as part of the Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health Study from 2018 to 2021, this investigation utilized a validated food frequency questionnaire to assess dietary intake. Researchers developed scoring systems for both the traditional Japanese diet, comprised of nine components including white rice, miso soup, soy products, and fish, and a modified diet that expanded to eleven items by substituting white rice with whole grains and incorporating fruits and dairy. The presence of depressive symptoms was measured using the 11-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, with a cutoff of ≥9 indicating significant depressive symptoms. Multilevel Poisson regression was employed to evaluate prevalence ratios (PRs) while adjusting for confounding factors and accounting for study site variability.
Out of 12,499 participants, a participation rate of 76.8% revealed that 30.9% reported experiencing depressive symptoms. Analysis showed PRs for depressive symptoms across quartiles of the traditional Japanese diet score as follows: 1.00 (reference), 0.94 (95% CI, 0.88-0.99), 0.91 (95% CI, 0.85-0.98), and 0.83 (95% CI, 0.80-0.86). For the modified diet, the PRs were similarly indicative: 1.00 (reference), 0.94 (95% CI, 0.89-0.98), 0.83 (95% CI, 0.80-0.87), and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.76-0.83).
These findings suggest that adhering closely to either the traditional or modified Japanese dietary patterns is linked to a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms among the working population. Such insights underscore the potential significance of dietary choices in mental health outcomes. [NPID: Depression, Japanese diet, fish, dietary pattern]
Year: 2026
