The association between urinary phytoestrogens and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Present evidence outlining the association between different types of phytoestrogens and depressive symptoms in the general population is limited and contradictory. Data from the 2007–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were used to examine their association. Phytoestrogens were measured in urine samples and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Logistic regression and restricted cubic spline models were used to evaluate associations. In one model, lignans and enterolactone were inversely associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms. Compared with the lowest quartile (Q1), the odds ratios (ORs; 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) for participants in the highest quartile of lignans and enterolactone were 0.44 (0.27–0.72) and 0.42 (0.26–0.67) for depressive symptoms, respectively. Additionally, the dose-response relationships between urinary lignans or enterolactone and depressive symptoms showed a linear trend. Our results suggest that urinary lignans and enterolactone are inversely associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms.

Keywords:

• Urinary phytoestrogens
• depressive symptoms
• dose-response relationship
• NHANES

Acknowledgements

This study utilised data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The authors would like to thank all contributors and participants in NHANES.

Author contributions

Kaiwen Cui: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing.

Jia Luo: Methodology, Software.

Liming Zhang: Formal analysis, Writing – original draft.

Tianhao Zhang: Methodology, Formal analysis.

Ziheng Feng: Software, Formal analysis.

Dongfeng Zhang: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Writing – review and editing.

All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Ethics approval

This work is not considered human subjects research as it relies on free, publicly available datasets (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) only, and is thus not subject to NCHS Research Ethics Review Board review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available from the NHANES: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm.