Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-zzw9c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-30T00:26:44.448Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Does an inflammatory diet affect mental well-being in late childhood and mid-life? A cross-sectional study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2021

Kate M. Lycett*
Affiliation:
Centre for Social & Early Emotional Development, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Disna J. Wijayawickrama
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Mengjiao Liu
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Anneke Grobler
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
David P. Burgner
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Louise A. Baur
Affiliation:
Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Richard Liu
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Katherine Lange
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Melissa Wake
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand
Jessica A. Kerr
Affiliation:
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Kate Lycett, fax +61 3 9345 5900, email kate.lycett@mcri.edu.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Inflammatory diets are increasingly recognised as a modifiable determinant of mental illness. However, there is a dearth of studies in early life and across the full mental well-being spectrum (mental illness to positive well-being) at the population level. This is a critical gap given that inflammatory diet patterns and mental well-being trajectories typically establish by adolescence. We examined the associations of inflammatory diet scores with mental well-being in 11–12-year-olds and mid-life adults. Throughout Australia, 1759 11–12-year-olds (49 % girls) and 1812 parents (88 % mothers) contributed cross-sectional population-based data. Alternate inflammatory diet scores were calculated from a twenty-six-item FFQ, based on the prior literature and prediction of inflammatory markers. Participants reported negatively and positively framed mental well-being via psychosocial health, quality of life and life satisfaction surveys. We used causal inference modelling techniques via generalised linear regression models (mean differences and risk ratios (RR)) to examine how inflammatory diets might influence mental well-being. In children and adults, respectively, a 1 sd higher literature-derived inflammatory diet score conferred between a 44 % (RR 95 % CI 1·2, 1·8) to 57 % (RR 95 % CI 1·3, 2·0) and 54 % (95 % CI 1·2, 2·0) to 86 % (RR 95 % CI 1·4, 2·4) higher risk of being in the worst mental well-being category (i.e. <16th percentile) across outcome measures. Results for inflammation-derived scores were similar. BMI mediated effects (21–39 %) in adults. Inflammatory diet patterns were cross-sectionally associated with mental well-being at age 11–12 years, with similar effects observed in mid-adulthood. Reducing inflammatory dietary components in childhood could improve population-level mental well-being across the life course.

Information

Type
Full Papers
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society
Figure 0

Table 1. Mental well-being measures

Figure 1

Table 2. Characteristics of analytic sample(Mean values and standard deviations)

Figure 2

Table 3. Causal linear regression analyses comparing diet score above 75th percentile with others

Figure 3

Table 4. Direct/indirect effects of pro-inflammatory diet (>75th percentile v. Others) on mental well-being through BMI(Risk ratios (RR) and 95 % confidence intervals)

Supplementary material: File

Lycett et al. supplementary material

Appendix

Download Lycett et al. supplementary material(File)
File 366.2 KB