Association Between Diet and Mental Health Outcomes in a Sample of 13,887 Adolescents in Canada
Dublin Core
Title
Association Between Diet and Mental Health Outcomes in a Sample of 13,887 Adolescents in Canada
Subject
Diet--Psychological aspects
Electronic Resource Item Type Metadata
Journal Name
Preventing Chronic Disease
Volume
Vol. 21
Publication Date
2024
Publisher
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (Atlanta, Ga.)
Document Type
Journal article
Language
English
ISBN
15451151
Region
Canada
Access
Open Access
View Source
Abstract
Introduction: The high prevalence of mental disorders among adolescents calls for community-based and population-level prevention strategies. Diet is an important intervention target for primary prevention of mental disorders among adolescents. We used data from a large longitudinal study of Canadian adolescents (aged 14-18 y) to examine prospective associations between diet and mental health outcomes.
Methods: We estimated the effect of diet (ie, consumption of vegetables and fruit and sugar-sweetened beverages [SSBs]) at baseline on depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and psychological well-being (measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 scale, and Flourishing Scale, respectively) and at 1-year follow-up in a sample of 13,887 Canadian secondary school students who participated in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 cycles of the Cannabis, Obesity, Mental health, Physical activity, Alcohol, Smoking, and Sedentary (COMPASS) behavior study. We applied linear mixed-effects methods informed by a directed acyclic graph. Sensitivity analyses assessed the robustness of the effect estimates to unmeasured confounding variables.
Results: Baseline SSB consumption was associated with greater severity of depressive (β = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.06) and anxiety (β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0-0.05) symptoms, particularly among male students, and poorer psychological well-being (β = -0.03; 95% CI, -0.05 to -0.01) at follow-up. Baseline vegetables and fruit consumption was positively associated with psychological well-being (β = 0.06; 95% CI, 0.03-0.10) but not other mental health outcomes at follow-up.
Conclusion: Our results support the notion that diet should be part of comprehensive mental health prevention and promotion interventions to reduce the prevalence of mental health disorders among adolescents.
Methods: We estimated the effect of diet (ie, consumption of vegetables and fruit and sugar-sweetened beverages [SSBs]) at baseline on depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and psychological well-being (measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 scale, and Flourishing Scale, respectively) and at 1-year follow-up in a sample of 13,887 Canadian secondary school students who participated in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 cycles of the Cannabis, Obesity, Mental health, Physical activity, Alcohol, Smoking, and Sedentary (COMPASS) behavior study. We applied linear mixed-effects methods informed by a directed acyclic graph. Sensitivity analyses assessed the robustness of the effect estimates to unmeasured confounding variables.
Results: Baseline SSB consumption was associated with greater severity of depressive (β = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.06) and anxiety (β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0-0.05) symptoms, particularly among male students, and poorer psychological well-being (β = -0.03; 95% CI, -0.05 to -0.01) at follow-up. Baseline vegetables and fruit consumption was positively associated with psychological well-being (β = 0.06; 95% CI, 0.03-0.10) but not other mental health outcomes at follow-up.
Conclusion: Our results support the notion that diet should be part of comprehensive mental health prevention and promotion interventions to reduce the prevalence of mental health disorders among adolescents.
Cataloger
Haley Lesemann
Citation
“Association Between Diet and Mental Health Outcomes in a Sample of 13,887 Adolescents in Canada,” ICMGLT Digital Library, accessed November 3, 2026, https://library.icmglt.org/items/show/781.