Empirically derived food-based dietary inflammatory index is associated with increased risk of psychological disorders in women

ABSTRACT

Purpose/introduction: There is no study on the association of empirically derived food-based dietary inflammatory index (FDII) and risk of psychological disorders. We investigated the association between FDII and odds of psychological disorders in Iranian adults.

Methods and materials: In this cross-sectional study, data on dietary intakes of 3363 Iranian adult participants were collected using a validated dish-based 106-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. FDII score was constructed based on participants’ dietary intakes of 28 pre-defined food groups. The Iranian validated version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was used to assess psychological disorders. Depression, anxiety and psychological distress were defined based on standard criteria.

Results: After controlling for potential confounders, participants in the top quintile of FDII score had a greater odds of depression (OR: 1.49; 95% CI: 1.08–2.06), anxiety (OR: 1.92; 95% CI: 1.24–2.96), and psychological distress (OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.10–2.19) compared with those in the bottom quintile. When we did the analyses stratified by gender, we found a significant positive association between FDII score and depression (OR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.04–2.35), anxiety (OR: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.19–3.34), and psychological distress (OR: 1.68; 95% CI: 1.10–2.56) among women comparing the highest and the lowest quintiles. We found no significant association between FDII score and psychological disorders in men.

Conclusion: We found that greater FDII score was positively associated with psychological disorders. In the gender-stratified analysis, this was seen in women but not in men.

KEYWORDS:

• Empirically derived food-based dietary inflammatory index
• FDII
• psychological disorders
• diet
• epidemiology

Acknowledgments

This study was extracted from a PhD dissertation that was approved by the School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (code 9321324004). The authors are thankful to participants of SEPAHAN project and authorities of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences for their excellent cooperation.

Disclaimer statements

Contributors ASM and AHK contributed in conception, design, search, statistical analyses, data interpretation and manuscript drafting. HA and PA contributed in design and data interpretation. AE contributed in conception, design, statistical analyses, data interpretation and manuscript drafting. AE supervised the study. All authors approved the final manuscript for submission.

Funding None.

Conflicts of interest None.

Ethical approval The study protocol was ethically approved by the Regional Bioethics Committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences on 24 January 2017.

Correction Statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Asma Salari-Moghaddam

Asma Salari-Moghaddam is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. She is interested in investigating diet-disease associations, especially in the field of mental well-being.

Ammar Hassanzadeh Keshteli

Ammar Hassanzadeh Keshteli is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Hamid Afshar

Hamid Afshar is a Professor (full) at the Psychosomatic Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Ahmad Esmaillzadeh

Ahmad Esmaillzadeh is a Professor (full) at the Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. His research interest is to develop and validate dietary strategies that effectively protect against obesity-associated chronic conditions, including metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease, psychological disorders, and different types of cancer.

Peyman Adibi

Peyman Adibi is a Professor (full) of Medicine in the field gastroenterology at the Department of Internal Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.