Association between dietary sugar intake and depression in US adults: a cross-sectional study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2018.

Research investigating the potential link between dietary sugar consumption and depression risk has shown mixed findings. Thus, Zhang et al. (2024) used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database in the United States to look into this link. This cross-sectional study included 18,439 participants from NHANES 2011–2018 (aged ≥20 years). The Patient Health Questionnaire, which has nine items, was used to measure depressive symptoms (PHQ-9). The authors accounted for several confounders: age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, poverty-income ratio, marital status, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, alcohol intake, physical activity, smoking status, and dietary calorie intake. The authors discovered that a 100 g/day increase in dietary sugar intake was associated with a 28% increase in the prevalence of depression after correcting for relevant confounders. In conclusion, dietary sugar consumption is positively correlated with depression in US adults. [NPID: Dietary sugar intake, Depression, NHANES, adult, cross-sectional study]

Year: 2024

Reference: hang, L., Sun, H., Liu, Z., Yang, J., & Liu, Y. (2024). Association between dietary sugar intake and depression in US adults: a cross-sectional study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2018. BMC Psychiatry, 24(1), 110. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-024-05531-7