Adherence to Mediterranean dietary pattern is inversely associated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress

ABSTRACT

Background: Few studies have assessed adherence to the Mediterranean diet in relation to psychological health, in particular in the Middle East.

Objective: To examine the association between adherence to Mediterranean dietary pattern and prevalence of psychological disorders among a large population of Iranian adults.

Design: In this cross-sectional study on 3172 Iranian adults aged 18–55 years, we used a validated food frequency questionnaire for the assessment of dietary intakes. Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern was examined using the Trichopoulou et al. method. To assess psychological health, the Iranian validated version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used. Psychological distress was assessed through the use of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ).

Results: Mean age of study participants was 36.54 ± 4.97 years. After controlling for potential confounders, participants with the greatest adherence to the Mediterranean diet had lower odds for depression (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.46–0.78), anxiety (OR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.42–0.86) and psychological distress (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.45–0.79) compared with those with the lowest adherence. When the association with components of Mediterranean diet was examined, we found that high intake of fruits and vegetables was associated with a lower odds of depression, anxiety and psychological distress. In contrast, high intake of grains was positively associated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress.

Conclusion: We found evidence indicating an inverse association between adherence to Mediterranean dietary pattern and odds of psychological disorders including depression, anxiety and psychological distress.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• depression
• diet
• Mediterranean
• psychological distress

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge their staff, the fieldworkers, and SEPAHAN project participants that without them this work would not have been possible. This study was supported by the Vice Chancellery for Research and Technology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Furthermore, ethic committee of Isfahan University of medical sciences, Isfahan, Iran approved the whole project of SEPAHAN in July 2012.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The study was financially supported by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in collaboration with Students’ Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (with code of 98-01-61-41559) as well.