Association between healthy eating and depression symptoms among Chinese older adults: A cross-sectional study based on the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity survey

Xinyue Zhang; Wenqin Zhou; Hui Wang; Yan Bai; Fan Zhang; Wei Lu

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102616

Association between healthy eating and depression symptoms among Chinese older adults: A cross-sectional study based on the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity survey

Prev Med Rep. 2024 Jan 16:38:102616. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102616. eCollection 2024 Feb.

Authors

Xinyue Zhang¹, Wenqin Zhou², Hui Wang³, Yan Bai⁴, Fan Zhang⁴, Wei Lu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, Longhua Hospital Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Nursing, Longhua Hospital Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Anorectology, Longhua Hospital Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Department of Nephrology A, Longhua Hospital Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to assess the relationship between the healthy eating index (HEI) and depression symptoms in an older adult population using the Chinese Longevity Health Survey.

Methods: The HEI was constructed based on the frequency of intake of 13 dietary variables, with higher scores indicating better diet quality. Depression symptoms was assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression-10 scale. We used multivariate binary logistic regression to explore the association between the HEI and depression symptoms and reported as odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI).

Results: A total of 12,078 older adults were included. The average HEI for this group of older adults was 26.4 ± 7.1. After adjusting for covariates, compared with participants in the lowest quartile of a healthy eating index, those in the second to the fourth quartile group had a 0.93- (95 % CI: 0.83 to 1.03), 0.84- (95 % CI: 0.75 to 0.95) and 0.69- (95 % CI: 0.62 to 0.77) fold risk of depression symptoms, respectively. Restricted cubic spline curves showed that the risk of depression symptoms decreased with increasing HEI, especially above 26, and for each unit increase in the HEI, the risk of depression symptoms in older adults decreased by 3 % (OR = 0.97; 95 % CI: 0.96 to 0.99).

Conclusions: This study found an association between higher levels of the HEI and reduced risk of depression symptoms in older Chinese adults. This result emphasizes the need to focus on dietary diversity in older adults to promote healthy aging.

Keywords: CLHLS; Depression symptoms; Healthy eating index; Older adults.