Association between healthy dietary pattern and common mental disorders in women: a cross-sectional population-based study.

Objectives: Scientific evidence suggests an association between diet quality and the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMD) in women. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the association between a healthy dietary pattern and CMD among women.

Methods: A cross-sectional population-based study was conducted on a representative sample of 1128 women, aged 20-69 years, residing in the urban area of São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake. A healthy dietary pattern, primarily consisting of fruits and vegetables, was identified using principal component analysis. CMD were evaluated using the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20: score ≥ 8). Prevalence ratios (PR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using multivariate Poisson regression with robust variance.

Results: The overall prevalence of CMD was 33.2% (95% CI: 30.6-36.1). After adjusting for potential confounding factors, a statistically significant inverse relationship between a healthy dietary pattern and CMD was observed. High adherence to a healthy dietary pattern was associated with a lower prevalence of CMD (PR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.59-0.95; p = 0.017). Women with a higher score on the healthy dietary pattern were 26% less likely to have CMD.

Conclusions: This study highlights a significant inverse association between a healthy dietary pattern and CMD in women. A high prevalence of CMD was also observed in this population group. These findings underscore the importance of promoting healthy dietary intake to prevent psychiatric disorders.