A study by researchers from the University of South Carolina and the University of Queensland has found that an anti-inflammatory diet may reduce the risk of depression in women.
The 12-year study aimed to explore the association between the inflammatory potential of diet and risk of depression, using the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.
The study involved 6,438 women with a mean age of 52 at baseline were followed-up at five surveys from 2001–2013. Depression was defined as a score of ≥10 on the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CESD) -10 scale.
In total, 1,156 women (18%) had scores of ≥10 on the CESD scale over the course of nine years. Women with the most anti-inflammatory diet had an approximately 20% lower risk of developing depression compared with women with the most pro-inflammatory diet.
“These results suggest that an anti-inflammatory diet is associated with lower risk of depression in middle-aged Australian women,” the researchers concluded.
