Adherence to MIND Diet and Risk of Recurrent Depressive Symptoms: Prospective Whitehall II Cohort Study

This study examined the association between adherence to the Mediterranean dietary approaches to stop hypertension Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, its components, and recurrent depressive symptoms (DepSs).

The analyses included 4824 participants (73% men, mean age = 61; SD = 5.9) from the British Whitehall II cohort study. The MIND diet scores were derived from a validated 127-item food frequency questionnaire in 2002-2004. DepSs were assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (score ≥ 16) or by use of antidepressant drugs, and recurrence was defined as having DepSs in at least two of the four repeated measurements in the 2002-2004, 2007-2009, 2012-2013, and 2015-2016 follow-up phases.

Recurrent DepSs were observed in 13.3% of the participants over 13 years of follow-up. After adjusting for potential confounders, participants in the highest tertile of the MIND diet score (where a higher score represents a higher diet quality) had 26% lower odds of experiencing recurrent DepSs (OR = 0.74; 95% CI 0.58-0.93) compared to those in the lowest tertile. In mutually adjusted analyses of 14 MIND diet components in relation to recurrent DepSs, independent associations were observed for green leafy vegetables (OR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.45-0.78), other vegetables (OR = 0.43, 95% CI:0.24-0.77), and berries (OR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.61-0.89).

In this British prospective cohort, good adherence to the MIND diet, particularly to the recommendations for vegetables and berries, was associated with a lower risk of recurrent depressive symptoms, independent of socio-economic, health behavior, and health status factors, including baseline cognitive impairment and antecedents of DepSs.