ArticleBMC psychiatry2026
Healthy Eating Index-2020 and post-stroke depression (PSD): cross-sectional analysis of NHANES data.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
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.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPost-stroke depression (PSD) is a common complication after stroke and contributes to poor functional recovery and reduced quality of life. Dietary quality has been associated with depression in the general population, but evidence in individuals with stroke remains limited. This study examined the cross-sectional association between the Healthy Eating Index-2020 (HEI-2020) and PSD.
methodsThis study included 962 adults with a history of stroke from seven cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2018. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, with a score ≥ 10 indicating probable depression. Dietary quality was evaluated using HEI-2020 and categorized into tertiles. Multivariate logistic regression, restricted cubic spline analysis, and mediation analysis were used to assess associations and the statistical indirect association of the Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota (DI-GM).
resultsAfter multivariate adjustment, each one-point increase in HEI-2020 score was associated with 2% lower odds of probable depression (PHQ-9-defined) (OR = 0.98). Compared with the low dietary quality group, the high dietary quality group had 59% lower odds (OR = 0.41). The dose-response relationship was nonlinear, with a significant inverse association observed only when HEI-2020 scores exceeded 57. This exploratory threshold may serve as a reference for future prospective studies but requires validation before clinical application. Furthermore, a significant interaction with race or ethnicity was identified (P for interaction = 0.033). DI-GM showed a significant indirect association (P = 0.04), but the direct and indirect components were in opposite directions, indicating an inconsistent mediation pattern. Given that DI-GM is a dietary proxy, these findings reflect statistical associations with a dietary pattern, not biological mediation. Future studies with direct microbiome measurements are needed to verify gut-brain axis involvement in PSD.
conclusionsIn this cross-sectional study, HEI-2020 was inversely associated with PSD, with nonlinear and race-specific patterns. DI-GM showed a significant but inconsistent indirect association, suggesting a suppressive rather than mediating role. Findings are associational, not causal.
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.