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Healthy dietary indices and risk of depressive outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies
This 2019 systematic review, which examined adherence to a healthy diet in relation to depressive symptoms or clinical depression, was designed to find an association between diet quality and depressive outcomes. Amongst the studies used were 20 longitudinal and 21 cross-sectional designed cohorts, employing an array of dietary measures including adherence to Mediterranean Diet assessments, the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and Alternative HEI (AHEI), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and the Dietary Inflammatory Index. Encouraging evidence was observed especially for Mediterranean Diet and incident depression, as a combined relative risk estimate of highest against lowest adherence from 4 longitudinal studies was calculated to be 0.67 (95% CI 0.55-0.82). Furthermore, again in 4 longitudinal studies an association between lower dietary inflammatory index with a drop in risk of depression (RR 0.76). Additional longitudinal studies with other indices suggested the same trend in the inverse association between healthy diet and depression. This systematic review concluded adhering to a Mediterranean Diet and low inflammatory diet can offer protection against depression in observational studies. [NPID: depression, Mediterranean Diet, inflammation]
Year: 2019
