Inflammatory dietary patterns and depressive symptoms in Italian older adults (original) (raw)

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Background-Older adults are more susceptible to higher inflammatory levels and depression. Moreover, diet may influence inflammation as well as depression but no previous study examined whether inflammatory dietary patterns are related to depression in an older population. To investigate the longitudinal association between inflammatory dietary patterns (using reduced rank regression (RRR)) and depressive symptoms in a population sample of Italian older adults. Methods-We included 827 participants (aged ≥ 65 years) at baseline in 1998. Follow-up measurements were collected after 3, 6 and 9 years. We used RRR to identify inflammatory dietary patterns at baseline. The Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale was used to assess depressive symptoms by using continuous scores and depression by using a cutoff point (CES-D ≥ 20). Results-We identified two inflammatory dietary patterns using different sets of response variables. Dietary pattern I was related to inflammatory markers C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor α and was characterized by high intakes of refined grains, sweet snacks, pasta and rice. After full adjustment for confounders, no longitudinal association was found when comparing extreme quartiles of this dietary pattern and depressive symptoms (Q1 vs Q4, model 4: B = 0.04, 95% CI: −0.06, 0.13) or depression (Q1 vs Q4, model 4: OR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.55, 1.45). Dietary pattern II was related to inflammatory markers CRP, IL-18, IL-1β, IL-1 receptor antagonist and was characterized by high intakes of pasta, sugar-sweetened