Symptoms of depression associated with diet quality in participants of the HANDLS study
Cremer Sees A, Fanelli Kuczmarski M, Cotugna N, Hotchkiss L, Zonderman AB, Evans MK. Symptoms of depression associated with diet quality in participants of the HANDLS study. Paper presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting; 2009; Philadelphia, PA. 2009
Major depression affects over 15 million Americans. The role of diet in health promotion is widely recognized, while our knowledge of how dietary patterns affect mental health, specifically depression, is still limited. This study investigated the relationship between dietary pattern quality and reported symptoms of depression in a low-income urban population. Subjects included 1,118 African American and white low-income adults, aged 30-64 years, living in Baltimore City and participating in the baseline phase of Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS), a 20-yr longitudinal study. Approximately half the sample had less than 125% of the 2004 Federal poverty income level. Diet quality was assessed with the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI) based on the average of two 24-hour dietary recalls collected by trained interviewers using the USDA Automated Multiple Pass Method. Depressive symptoms were assessed by trained interviewers using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. The mean (±standard error) score for HEI was 52.17 ± 0.40 and for CES-D, 11.64 ± 0.25. Higher HEI scores were significantly associated with fewer depressive symptoms (p < 0.0001). When gender, race, age, education, income, and participation in food assistance programs were added to the regression analyses, the inverse effect of HEI on depressive symptoms was attenuated appreciably but remained statistically significant. Income played the strongest role in attenuating the HEI-depression relationship. Research with data from future waves of HANDLS study will help assess these associations.
Cremer Sees A, Fanelli Kuczmarski M, Cotugna N, Hotchkiss L, Zonderman AB, Evans MK. Symptoms of depression associated with diet quality in participants of the HANDLS study. Paper presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting; 2009; Philadelphia, PA. 2009
Major depression affects over 15 million Americans. The role of diet in health promotion is widely recognized, while our knowledge of how dietary patterns affect mental health, specifically depression, is still limited. This study investigated the relationship between dietary pattern quality and reported symptoms of depression in a low-income urban population. Subjects included 1,118 African American and white low-income adults, aged 30-64 years, living in Baltimore City and participating in the baseline phase of Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS), a 20-yr longitudinal study. Approximately half the sample had less than 125% of the 2004 Federal poverty income level. Diet quality was assessed with the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI) based on the average of two 24-hour dietary recalls collected by trained interviewers using the USDA Automated Multiple Pass Method. Depressive symptoms were assessed by trained interviewers using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. The mean (±standard error) score for HEI was 52.17 ± 0.40 and for CES-D, 11.64 ± 0.25. Higher HEI scores were significantly associated with fewer depressive symptoms (p < 0.0001). When gender, race, age, education, income, and participation in food assistance programs were added to the regression analyses, the inverse effect of HEI on depressive symptoms was attenuated appreciably but remained statistically significant. Income played the strongest role in attenuating the HEI-depression relationship. Research with data from future waves of HANDLS study will help assess these associations.
