Association of B-vitamin-derived dietary pattern with depressive symptoms: evidence from the NHANES

Depressive symptoms are a multifactorial global mental health issue. B-vitamin intake is associated with mental and neurological health, but the association between B-vitamin-related dietary patterns and depressive symptoms remains unclear. This study examined the association between B-vitamin-related dietary patterns and depressive symptoms.

Data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2018. Reduced rank regression (RRR) was used to derive the dietary patterns, with 6 energy-adjusted B-vitamin intakes (B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, and B12) as response variables. Both predictor food groups and B-vitamin response variables were energy-adjusted before RRR using the residual method. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Survey-weighted multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for the sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related confounders.

A total of 31,037 participants were included in the analytic sample for dietary pattern derivation and association analyses. The identified dietary pattern was characterized by the higher consumption of milk, soy products, whole grains, dark green vegetables, red and orange vegetables, and fruit, and lower consumption of added sugar, solid fat, and alcoholic drinks. In the fully adjusted model, each 1 SD increase in the dietary pattern score was associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms (aOR, 0.856; 95% CI, 0.802-0.913). Compared with the lowest quartile (Q1), participants in the highest quartile (Q4) had significantly lower odds (aOR, 0.668; 95% CI, 0.571-0.781; P for trend < 0.001).

Higher scores for the B-vitamin-related dietary pattern were associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms among United States adults. These findings suggest that B-vitamin-related food patterns may be relevant to depressive symptoms, but causality cannot be inferred from this cross-sectional study. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these associations.