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The association between dietary inflammatory index, dietary antioxidant index, and mental health in adolescent girls: an analytical study
Dietary inflammatory index (DII) and dietary antioxidant index (DAI) are novel tools that measure the biological impact of a consumed diet. Dietary consumption is known to impact our mental health status. In this cross-sectional study by Dehghan et al. (2022), the authors investigated the links between DII, DAI, and mental health in a sample of 364 female adolescents who attended school. Participants submitted a 3-day food record, which was used to calculate DII and DAI, while the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 was used to evaluate their anxiety, depression, and stress. Preliminary analysis revealed that 19.4% of participants were overweight (body mass index [BMI] for age > +1 z-score) and that participants suffered from mental health derangements (anxiety 26.6%, stress 25.7%, and depression 21.4%). Data analysis revealed that high DII scores were substantially associated with mental health derangements compared to scores in the first tertile, an association that lost its statistical significance when confounders were adjusted (BMI, energy intake, age, family income, parental education level). On the other hand, lower DAI scores were substantially linked to a decrease in depression and anxiety. The authors conclude that anti-inflammatory diets enhance the mental health status of adolescent females, and can present a potential intervention to treat psychosocial derangements. [NPID: Adolescent girls, Dietary Antioxidant Index, Dietary Inflammatory Index, mental health]
Year: 2022
