ArticleNutrients2021
Vegetarian Diet Is Associated with Lower Risk of Depression in Taiwan.
Article in Nutrients, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Certainty of the Evidence on Plant- vs Meat-Predominant Dietary Patterns and Depression: An Umbrella Review.Nutrition reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Article
- Plant-based diets and depression: epidemiological evidence, biological mechanisms, and implications for prevention.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Plant-based diets especially healthy ones are negatively associated with depression: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The Role of Various Types of Diets in the Treatments of Depressive Disorders.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Review
- Balancing Health and Sustainability: Assessing the Benefits of Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Pesticide Residues.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Critical Review of the Cross-Links Between Dietary Components, the Gut Microbiome, and Depression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Relationship between leisure activity and depression in Chinese older adults: chain mediating effect of diet and cognition.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Gut microbiota as a novel target for treating anxiety and depression: from mechanisms to multimodal interventions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- The microbiota-gut-brain axis in depression: unraveling the relationships and therapeutic opportunities.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Vegetarian Diet Reduced Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease in a Nationwide Longitudinal Survey in Taiwan.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Nutritional Strategies for Chronic Craniofacial Pain and Temporomandibular Disorders: Current Clinical and Preclinical Insights.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Review
- Prevalence of anhedonia, anxiety, and their impact on food consumption among postgraduate Qassim University students.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Using genetic variations to reveal the complex relationships between vegetarianism and well-being, depressive symptoms and neuroticism.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Association of Plant-Based Diet Indices and Abdominal Obesity with Mental Disorders among Older Chinese Adults.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Adherence to a Vegetarian Diet is not Associated With Depression: Results From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.Psychiatry investigation · 2023Article
- Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem in Older Adults Engaging in Formal Volunteering: A Cross-Sectional Study in Taiwan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In order to determine whether Taiwanese vegetarian diets reduce the risks of depression, we analyzed data from the Tzu Chi Vegetarian Study (TCVS), which is a prospective cohort study following 12,062 participants from the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation of Taiwan since 2005. The cohort was prospectively followed by linking to the National Health Institute Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan and hazard ratios of depression between vegetarian and non-vegetarian groups were calculated by Cox proportional hazards regression. We assessed dietary intake using a detailed food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Incident depression was ascertained through linkage to NHIRD which had claim records with the International Classification of Diseases, and a total of 3571 vegetarians and 7006 non-vegetarians were included in this analysis. Compared with non-vegetarians, the vegetarian group had a lower incidence of depressive disorders (2.37 vs. 3.21 per 10,000 person-years; adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.70; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.52-0.93). Thus, Taiwanese vegetarians had a lower risk of developing subsequent depressive disorders compared with non-vegetarians. This indicated that diet may be an important measure for the prevention of depression. However, to generalize to the global population requires further study.
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.