PLoS ONE (Jan 2023)

The relationship between a plant-based diet and mental health: Evidence from a cross-sectional multicentric community trial (LIPOKAP study).

  • Fahimeh Haghighatdoost,
  • Atena Mahdavi,
  • Noushin Mohammadifard,
  • Razieh Hassannejad,
  • Farid Najafi,
  • Hossein Farshidi,
  • Masoud Lotfizadeh,
  • Tooba Kazemi,
  • Simin Karimi,
  • Hamidreza Roohafza,
  • Erika Aparecida Silveira,
  • Nizal Sarrafzadegan,
  • Cesar de Oliveira

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284446
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 5
p. e0284446

Abstract

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BackgroundDietary patterns emphasizing plant foods might be neuroprotective and exert health benefits on mental health. However, there is a paucity of evidence on the association between a plant-based dietary index and mental health measures.ObjectiveThis study sought to examine the association between plant-based dietary indices, depression and anxiety in a large multicentric sample of Iranian adults.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was performed in a sample of 2,033 participants. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to evaluate dietary intakes of participants. Three versions of PDI including an overall PDI, a healthy PDI (hPDI), and an unhealthy PDI (uPDI) were created. The presence of anxiety and depression was examined via a validated Iranian version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).ResultsPDI and hPDI were not associated to depression and anxiety after adjustment for potential covariates (age, sex, energy, marital status, physical activity level and smoking). However, in the crude model, the highest consumption of uPDI approximately doubled the risk of depression (OR= 2.07, 95% CI: 1.49, 2.87; PConclusionsAn unhealthy plant-based dietary index is associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety, while plant-based dietary index and healthy plant-based dietary index were not associated to depression and anxiety.