Diet quality and mental health problems in late childhood

ABSTRACT

Objectives: There is evidence that diet quality is associated with mental health problems in adults and adolescents. Yet the extent to which overall diet quality (not individual nutrients or dietary patterns) may be associated with mental health problems in pre-adolescent children, a common time for first onset of symptoms, remains unclear. This study examined associations between overall diet quality, using a brief measure, and mental health problems during late childhood, in a large community sample.

Methods: Participants were 787 eight and nine-year-old children taking part in the Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study. Parents reported on their child's mental health problems using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and on their child's diet quality, using a six-item screening tool.

Results: Regression analyses were conducted, adjusting for child age, sex, body mass index, and family socioeconomic status. Overall diet quality was significantly associated with children's mental health before (beta = −0.11, 95% CI −0.18 to −0.04, p = 0.004) and after adjustments for age, sex, body mass index and family socioeconomic status (beta = −0.10, 95% CI −0.18 to −0.03, p = 0.007).

Conclusion: Concordant with previous literature, results indicate that better overall diet quality is related to more positive mental health in pre-adolescent children. Additionally, these results support the utility and efficacy of a brief (six-item) parent-report questionnaire as an indicator of overall diet quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Diet quality
• mental health
• children
• CATS study
• adolescence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Stefanie Dimov is currently working at the University of Melbourne as a project manager on a number of research projects focused on disability and employment. She has worked on projects conducted out of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and La Trobe University. Recently, she has worked as a project coordinator on a longitudinal study conducted at Deakin University in collaboration with the Royal Children's Hospital. She is also currently completing a PhD in Autism research at La Trobe University.

Lisa K. Mundy is a Research Fellow and the Project Manager of the Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study (CATS) conducted at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. This is a unique longitudinal study of over 1200 children in the middle years of school. CATS is based in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria and began in 2012 with an aim of improving our understanding of child health and emotional development in late childhood. Dr Mundy has a PhD in Developmental Psychology. She has worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Adolescent Health within the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute since 2011.

Jordana K. Bayer, MClin Psych PhD, is a registered clinical psychologist, Professor of Clinical Psychology (Child and Adolescence) at La Trobe University Melbourne, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Her research focuses on developing effective prevention programs for children's high prevalence (emotional and behavioural) mental health problems. This study was conducted as a chief investigator on the CATS Project.

Felice N. Jacka is Director of the Food and Mood Centre and founder and president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR). She is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow at Deakin University in Australia, within the IMPACT SRC at the School of Medicine. She also holds Honorary Principal Research Fellow appointments at the Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Centre; The University of Melbourne; and the Black Dog Institute in NSW.

She has pioneered a highly innovative program of research that examines how individuals’ diets, and other lifestyle behaviors, interact with the risk for mental health problems. This research is being carried out with the ultimate goal of developing an evidence-based public health message for the primary prevention of the common mental disorders. She has published extensively in high-impact journals in the mental health field including the American Journal of Psychiatry, World Psychiatry, BMC Medicine, Schizophrenia Bulletin and Lancet Psychiatry.

Louise Canterford is the data manager and data analyst for the Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study (CATS). She has a Masters of Biostatistics and has worked at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute for the past 14 years. During this time Louise has gained extensive data management and statistical analysis experience having worked on several unique longitudinal studies including The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study (VAHCS), and the Health of Young Victorian Study (HOYVS).

George C. Patton is a medically qualified epidemiologist with a clinical background in child & adolescent psychiatry. He is a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Principal Research Fellow. His research is based at the Centre for Adolescent Health and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. He has been extensively involved in both child and adolescent mental health research and global adolescent health work. He has been a consultant around research to WHO, UN Population Division, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank. He has previously coordinated two special series on adolescent health for the Lancet and is currently Chair of a “Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Well-being”.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a project grant from Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC; #1010018). Dr Mundy was partially supported by a grant from the Invergowrie Foundation. Professor Patton was supported by a Senior Principal Research Fellowship from NHMRC.