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Inflammatory diet mediates the relationship between early life stress and inflammation in adolescents
Early life stress (ELS) is associated with increased risk of adverse health outcomes and mortality. Recent findings indicate that chronic inflammation may be a crucial pathway linking ELS to these adverse health outcomes. Specifically, a history of previous institutionalization (PI) during infancy and toddlerhood correlates with elevated inflammation levels in adolescence. This study investigates the association between ELS and the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) and whether DII mediates the relationship between ELS and inflammation markers. Utilizing data from 190 adolescents aged 12–21 years, including 95 with a history of PI, multiple regression analyses were performed to explore the association between PI and DII derived from 24-hour dietary recalls. The results indicated that adolescents with PI exhibited significantly higher DII scores (M = 1.97, SD = 1.78) compared to their non-adopted counterparts (M = 1.19, SD = 1.70), t(185) = -3.04, p = 0.003, suggesting a greater prevalence of pro-inflammatory dietary patterns among PI adolescents. Furthermore, DII was a significant predictor of IL-6 (ß = 0.17, p = 0.027) and TNF-α (ß = 0.23, p = 0.001), indicating that higher DII scores are associated with higher levels of these inflammatory cytokines. Notably, DII significantly mediated the indirect relationship between PI and TNF-α (ß = 0.05, SE = 0.112, p = 0.027), demonstrating that PI youth’s elevated DII scores contribute to higher TNF-α levels. These findings underscore the importance of dietary habits in influencing inflammation among PI adolescents, particularly with respect to TNF-α. [NPID: Early-life stress, dietary patterns, pro-inflammatory, inflammation, adolescents]
Year: 2026
