Regular consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods is associated with fewer depressive symptoms in older adults: a cross-sectional analysis of EpiFloripa Aging cohort study, Brazil

Diet has been postulated as a modifiable risk factor for the onset of depression. Here, we tested the hypothesis that weekly and daily consumption of healthy food decreases the prevalence ratio (PR) of depressive symptoms in older adults. Data from 1197 participants from the third wave of data collection of the EpiFloripa Aging cohort study (2017-2019) were used. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15); the frequency of consumption of healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, whole food, fish, and beans) were collected through a questionnaire to evaluate the regular consumption of the food groups (≥5 times/week for fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grain; ≥2 times/week for fish; ≥5 times/day for fruits and vegetables combined). Poisson regression was used to examine the associations between food intake and depressive symptoms. A Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) was created to define the minimal adjustment model. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 14.6%. A statistically significant inverse association was found between regular consumption of healthy food and depressive symptoms: ≥5 times/week for fruits (PR = 0.71 [95%CI: 0.56, 0.90]), vegetables (0.81 [0.68, 0.96]), beans (0.84 [0.74, 0.96]), and whole grains (0.86 [0.74, 0.99]); once a week for fish consumption (0.82 [0.71, 0.95]); 2-4 times/day (0.80 [0.65, 0.97]) and ≥5 times/day (0.75 [0.58, 0.96]) for fruits and vegetables (FV). Our results suggest that older adults who regularly consume healthy food are less likely to experience depressive symptoms. Further longitudinal studies are necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms in the relationship between diet and depression.