Background: Dietary factors play an important role in the development of depressive symptoms. Carotenoids have effective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, but few studies have explored the associations between dietary carotenoid intake and depressive symptoms.
Objective: To evaluate the association between dietary carotenoid intake and the risk of depressive symptoms in adults from the United States.
Design: This cross-sectional study included adult participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2016. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patients' Health Questionnaire-9. Intake of carotenoids was obtained through two 24-h dietary recall interviews. We applied logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline models to evaluate the associations of dietary alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein with zeaxanthin, and total carotenoid intake with the risk of depressive symptoms.
Results: Overall, a total of 17,401 adults aged 18-80 years were included in this study. After adjustment for potential confounders, the odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of depressive symptoms in the highest versus lowest quartiles were 0.71 (0.56-0.92) for alpha-carotene, 0.59 (0.47-0.75) for beta-carotene, 0.71 (0.55-0.92) for beta-cryptoxanthin, 0.66 (0.49-0.89) for lycopene, 0.50 (0.39-0.64) for lutein with zeaxanthin, and 0.59 (0.45-0.78) for total carotenoid intake. U-shaped dose-response relationships were found between both beta-carotene and lutein with zeaxanthin intake and the risk of depressive symptoms.
Conclusion: Results suggest that alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein with zeaxanthin, and total carotenoid intake may be inversely associated with the risk of depressive symptoms in the U.S. adults.
Keywords: NHANES; depressive symptoms; dietary carotenoid intakes; dose–response relationship; restricted cubic spline models.
© 2020 Honghan Ge et al.