Association between dietary behaviors and depression in adolescent girls

Background: The growing prevalence of depression has become a major public health problem. There is limited evidence regarding the relationship between dietary behaviors and depression. The present study was designed to evaluate the association between dietary behaviors and depression score. Methods: A total of 933 Iranian adolescent girls aged 12 to 18 years were included in this cross-sectional study. Depression severity score was assessed using a validated Persian version of Beck’s depression inventory. Dietary behaviors were pre-defined and assessed in ten domains using a standard questionnaire. To investigate the association between dietary behaviors and depression score, the linear regression analysis in crude and adjusted models was used. Results: 67.7% of participants had no or minimal depression symptoms and 32.3% of participants were categorized with mild-to-severe depression symptoms. There were significant inverse relationships between main meal consumption (Beta: -0.141; 95% CI: - 3.644 to - 1.000; P = 0.001), snack consumption (Beta: -0.100; 95% CI: - 2.400 to - 0.317; P = 0.002), regular meal consumption (Beta: 0.23; 95% CI: 0.13–0.42; P = 0.001) and food chewing (Beta: -0.152; 95% CI: - 2.279 to - 0.753; P = 0.03) with depression score. These associations remained significant after adjustment for confounding variables. In addition, frequency of intra-meal fluid intake (Beta: 0.096; 95% CI: 0.288 to 1.535; P = 0.004) and spicy foods consumption (Beta: 0.076; 95% CI: 0.098 to 1.508; P = 0.02) were directly associated with depression score in the crude model. These significant relations were disappeared in full adjusted model. No significant association was found between breakfast consumption, intake of fried foods, chewing ability, and tooth loss with depression score (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Significant associations were observed between specific eating behaviors with depression score. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.