ArticleBMC medicine2015
A longitudinal analysis of diet quality scores and the risk of incident depression in the SUN Project.
Article in BMC medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 164 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of the association of diet quality with the mental health of university students: implications in health education practice.Health education research · 2023Pooled it
- Depression, Is It Treatable in Adults Utilising Dietary Interventions? A Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Healthy dietary indices and risk of depressive outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.Molecular psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- A brief diet intervention can reduce symptoms of depression in young adults - A randomised controlled trial.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Article
- The Mediterranean pyramid: 30 years later, still relevant.European journal of nutrition · 2026Review
- The Gut Microbiota as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Dietary Patterns and Depression.MedComm · 2026Article
- Article
- Plant-based diets especially healthy ones are negatively associated with depression: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Risk Profiles of Poor Diet Quality Among University Students: A Multivariate Segmentation Analysis.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Adherence to the MIND diet and its association with the risk of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances in physically active adults: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
- Association Between Fermented Food Consumption and Sleep Quality Under Psychological Stress: Prospective Cohort Study.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- Estimating the Burden of Common Mental Disorders Attributable to Lifestyle Factors: Protocol for the Global Burden of Disease Lifestyle and Mental Disorder (GLAD) Project.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Untargeted metabolomics reveals quinic acid as the kiwifruit component that affects brain activity in mice.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Associations between ultra-processed food consumption and duration of exercise with psychological symptoms in Chinese adolescents: a nationwide cross-sectional survey.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Effect of Moderate Red Meat Intake Compared With Plant-Based Meat Alternative on Psychological Well-Being: A 10-Wk Cluster Randomized Intervention in Healthy Young Adults.Current developments in nutrition · 2025Article
- Lipidomic Signature of Healthy Diet Adherence and Its Association with Cardiometabolic Risk in American Adults.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Adherence to the Mediterranean diet and depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms in Spanish adolescents: results from the EHDLA study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSome studies have pointed out that several dietary patterns could be associated with a reduced risk of depression among adults. This association seems to be consistent across countries, cultures and populations. The objective of the study was to compare and to establish the type of relationship between three diet quality scores and depression in the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) Cohort study.
methodsWe performed a dynamic cohort study based on Spanish university graduates free of depression at baseline. Dietary intake was repeatedly assessed at baseline and after 10 years of follow-up with a validated semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire. Three previously described diet quality scores: Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS), Pro-vegetarian Dietary Pattern (PDP) and Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010) were built. Participants were classified as having depression if they reported a new clinical diagnosis of depression by a physician or initiated the use of an antidepressant drug during follow-up. Time-dependent Cox regression models with cumulative averages of diet and restricted cubic splines were used to estimate hazard ratios of depression according to quintiles of adherence to the MDS, PDP and AHEI-2010.
resultsOne thousand and fifty one incident cases of depression were observed among 15,093 participants from the SUN Cohort after a median follow-up of 8.5 years. Inverse and significant associations were observed between the three diet quality scores and depression risk. The hazard ratios and 95 % confidence intervals for extreme quintiles (fifth versus first) of updated adherence to MDS, PDP and AHEI-2010 were 0.84 (0.69-1.02), 0.74 (0.61-0.89) and 0.60 (0.49-0.72), respectively. The dose-response analyses showed non-linear associations, suggesting that suboptimal adherence to these dietary patterns may partially be responsible for increased depression risk.
conclusionsBetter adherence to the MDS, PDP and AHEI-2010 was associated with a reduced risk of depression among Spanish adults. However, our data suggested a threshold effect so that although the risk of depression was reduced when comparing moderate versus lower adherence, there was not much extra benefit for the comparison between moderate and high or very high adherence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.