Mediterranean Diet May Aid Mental Health in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

TUESDAY, July 23, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with lower odds of depression in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study published online July 5 in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition.

Liya Ma, from Honghui Hospital at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China, and colleagues explored the association between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and depression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Analysis included 1,148 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (aged ≥20 years), for whom 24-hour dietary recall interview data were available.

The researchers found that 25.26 percent of participants had depression. In adjusted analysis, high adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with the lower odds of depression (odds ratio, 0.53). Higher consumption of vegetables (odds ratio, 0.54) and cereals (odds ratio, 0.63) drove this decrease in the odds of depression.

“In conclusion, we found that greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with the lower odds of depression in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Thus, our results provide evidence that greater adherence to Mediterranean diet may improve mental health in adults,” the authors write. “To elucidate whether true causal associations exist between diet and depression, further more rigorous cohort studies are needed.”

Abstract/Full Text