Adherence to the MIND diet and prevalence of psychological disorders in adults

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is no study that examined the association of the MIND diet and odds of psychological disorders. We investigated the association between adherence to the MIND diet and odds of psychological disorders. METHODS: A total of 3176 adults were included in this cross-sectional study. Dietary intakes of study participants were collected using a validated dish-based 106-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (DS-FFQ). The MIND diet score was calculated based on participants' dietary intakes obtained from DS-FFQ. To assess depression and anxiety, the Iranian validated version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used. Psychological distress was examined using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). RESULTS: After taking potential confounders into account, participants in the highest quartile of the MIND diet score had a lower odds of depression (OR: 0.68; 95 CI: 0.53-0.89) and psychological distress (OR: 0.68; 95 CI: 0.52-0.89) than those in the lowest quartile. No significant association was observed between consumption of MIND diet and odds of anxiety (OR: 0.72; 95 CI: 0.51-1.03). When we did gender-stratified analyses, no significant association was seen between adherence to the MIND diet and odds of psychological disorders in men; however, women in the top quartile of the MIND diet score had lower odds of depression (OR: 0.60; 95 CI: 0.45-0.81) and psychological distress (OR: 0.66; 95 CI: 0.48-0.90) than those in the bottom quartile. CONCLUSION: We found that greater adherence to the MIND diet was inversely associated with odds of depression and psychological distress. No significant association was observed between consumption of MIND diet and odds of anxiety.