ArticleThe Journal of nutrition2023
Mediterranean Diet Adherence and Depressive Symptoms among a Nationally Representative Sample of Pregnant Women in the United States.
Article in The Journal of nutrition, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring the link between dietary indices and depression in American adult population: NHANES 2017-2020 data analysis.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Association of Mediterranean Diet Scores with Psychological Distress in Pregnancy: The Japan Environment and Children's Study.Nutrients · 2025Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPrenatal depression affects ∼12% of pregnant women in the United States and is associated with an increased risk of adverse birth outcomes and maternal mortality. Adherence to a healthy dietary pattern may reduce and/or protect against depressive symptoms.
objectivesTo investigate the relationship between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and depressive symptoms among pregnant women in the United States.
methodsWe used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2018, N = 540) and included pregnant women aged 18-44 y with a positive urine pregnancy test. The Mediterranean diet score (aMED) was calculated from 1 24-h recall; aMED typically ranges from 0-9, but in these analyses, it ranged from 0-8 because alcohol was not included. The aMED score was dichotomized as high (>3) compared with low (≤3). The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), which measures depressive symptoms, was dichotomized as lower compared with higher (PHQ-9 score ≥10), based on the clinical cutoff for patient referral. Our primary model employed logistic regression to investigate the association between aMED adherence and high depressive symptoms when controlling for socio-demographics (age, racial/ethnicity, education, poverty, and relationship status), total calories, and prepregnancy body mass index (kg/m
resultsAbout 5% of pregnant women had moderate to severe depressive symptoms, and 45% were highly adherent to a Mediterranean diet. Higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms (odds ratio: 0.31, 95% confidence interval: 0.10, 0.98). Results were not significant for the continuous PHQ-9 score (β: -0.30; 95% confidence interval: -0.90, 0.30).
conclusionsAdherence to a Mediterranean diet may have the potential to lower depressive symptoms among pregnant women; however, these results should be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, considering the public health significance of promoting mental wellness among pregnant women, this relationship merits further examination using experimental designs.
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