Highlights
- •In this study, dietary fiber intake was positively associated with mental health quality of life scores later in life.
- •This association suggests a role for dietary fiber in mental health, as quality of life score can reflect depression risk.
- •The fiber intake - mental health quality of life score association differs across fiber source (whole grain vs. refined).
Abstract
Objective
Recent studies have reported associations between dietary intake and mental health.
Dietary fiber is one nutrient that may modulate mental health, specifically depression
risk, through the gut microbiome. We prospectively examined the association between
dietary fiber intake and mental health-related quality of life (QOL) scores, a proxy
for depressive symptoms, in a cohort of 14,129 post-menopausal women in the Iowa Women’s
Health Study.
Methods
Dietary intake was assessed at baseline [1986] using a 127-item food frequency questionnaire.
Mental health-related QOL scores were assessed at the follow-up questionnaire [2004]
using the Mental Health (MH) component and Mental Health Composite (MCS) scales derived
from the SF-36 Health Survey. The association between dietary fiber intake and mean
QOL scores was examined using linear regression, with adjustment for age, alcohol
intake, energy intake, waist-to-hip ratio, physical activity, smoking status, and
education.
Results
The median dietary fiber intake was 19.0 g/day, ranging from 1.1 to 89.4 g/day. Multivariable-adjusted
mean MH scores were higher among those with higher fiber intake (P for trend = 0.02). For MCS score, the association with fiber intake observed in a model adjusted
for age and energy intake became insignificant after multivariable adjustment.
Conclusions
Our study is one of the first prospective analyses of the association between higher
dietary fiber intake and increased MH QOL scores later in life. Given a plausible
biological mechanism underlying the association between fiber intake and mental health,
additional studies are warranted.
Keywords
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Further reading
Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 13, 2019
Accepted:
October 8,
2019
Received in revised form:
September 24,
2019
Received:
June 11,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
