ArticlePsychological medicine2025
Triangulated evidence provides no support for bidirectional causal pathways between diet/physical activity and depression/anxiety.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Genetic Basis and Causal Association Between Obesity and Atrial Fibrillation.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Is there a bidirectional relationship between the number of unhealthy lifestyle factors and depressive symptoms in adolescents? Evidence from a longitudinal study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Challenges and future directions for Mendelian randomization.Nature genetics · 2026Review
- Data-driven dietary patterns in relation to psychological distress and psychological quality of life among community-dwelling older adults in Shanghai, China: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies (various designs) present contradicting insights on the potential causal effects of diet/physical activity on depression/anxiety (and vice versa). To clarify this, we employed a triangulation framework including three methods with unique strengths/limitations/potential biases to examine possible bidirectional causal effects of diet/physical activity on depression/anxiety.
methodsStudy 1: 3-wave longitudinal study (
resultsStudy 1 did not provide support for bidirectional causal effects between diet/physical activity and symptoms of depression/anxiety. Study 2 did provide support for causal effects between fruit/vegetable intake and symptoms of depression/anxiety, mixed support for causal effects between physical activity and symptoms of depression/anxiety, and no support for causal effects between sweet/savoury snack intake and symptoms of depression/anxiety. Study 3 provides support for a causal effect from increased fruit intake to the increased likelihood of anxiety. No support was found for other pathways. Adjusting the analyses including diet for physical activity (and vice versa) did not change the conclusions in any study.
conclusionsTriangulating the evidence across the studies did not provide compelling support for causal effects of diet/physical activity on depression/anxiety or vice versa.
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