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Diet quality and feelings of worry, sadness or unhappiness in Canadian children
In this 2013 study, 6,528 students (grade 5) in Canada were examined to explore the relationship between their diet quality and feelings of worry, sadness or unhappiness. The students’ responses to the Harvard Food Frequency Questionnaire were used to calculate a composite score of diet quality and its components (variety, adequacy, moderation and balance), while the outcomes of this experiment were their responses to the question on “feelings of worry, sadness or unhappiness” from the EuroQoL 5 Dimension questions for Youth (EQ-5D-Y), which is a validated Health Related Quality of Life questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses showed an inverse association between diet quality with the children’s feelings of worry, sadness or happiness (odds ratio = 0.9). Moreover, greater dietary variety and adequacy also correlated with lower odds of feeling worried, sad or unhappy. Diet had a more marked impact on these feelings in the girls compared to the boys, after results were stratified by gender. While supporting the link between diet and mental health described in other studies, these findings suggest that the quality of diet can have an impact on children’s feelings of worry, unhappiness and sadness. Public health strategies aiming to manage/prevent mental health in children and youth may want to consider diet quality. [NPID: mood, well-being, depression, Canada, worry, sadness, unhappiness, variety, adequacy, moderation, balance, children, gender differences, public health, public health strategies]
Year: 2013
