Association between the Chinese Dietary Balance Index-based dietary quality and depressive symptoms in breast cancer...

This cross-sectional study explored the association between dietary quality and the risk of depressive symptoms in breast cancer patients.

Dietary intake was assessed by 3-day, 24-h dietary recall, followed by dietary quality evaluation by the Chinese Dietary Balance Index-16 (DBI-16). Depressive symptoms were assessed by Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).

A total of 160 breast cancer patients with a mean age of 53.07 ± 9.50 years were recruited. Fifty of these patients had a CES-D score higher than 16 and were defined as depressed. Compared with non-depressed patients, depressed patients had significantly inadequate fruit intake (P = 0.002). A higher proportion of depressed patients had moderately inadequate dietary intake (lower bound scores, LBS, between 25 ~ 36) compared with non-depressed patients (14.0% vs. 0.9%), and there was a significant difference in the distribution of inadequate intake levels between the two groups (P = 0.003). The depressed patients also had a significantly lower diet variety (P = 0.009). Logistic regression analysis showed that after controlling for age, menopausal status, and employment, LBS was positively associated with depressive symptoms (OR = 1.086; 95% CI 1.005-1.174; P = 0.036), whereas the fruit score (OR = 0.674; 95% CI 0.522-0.871; P = 0.003) and diet variety score (OR = 0.637; 95% CI 0.462-0.878; P = 0.006) were both negatively associated.

Diet might be one of the determinants of depressive symptoms in breast cancer patients. A balanced diet with more fruits, increased diet variety, and adequate nutrients might be a promising strategy to prevent or treat depressive symptoms in breast cancer patients.