Abstract
BACKGROUND: Physically active persons frequently change their dietary intakes to get the best results in their exercises. These changes in dietary intakes, which are not healthy in some cases, might influence the risk of psychological disorders in them. In the present study, we investigated the association between adherence to the MIND diet and the odds of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances among physically active adults. METHODS: A total of 684 participants were included in this cross-sectional study. Dietary intakes of study participants were assessed using a validated 168-item semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The MIND diet score was calculated based on participants' dietary intakes obtained from FFQ. To assess depression, anxiety, and sleep quality, the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used, respectively. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS (SPSS Inc., version 18). RESULTS: After adjusting for the potential confounding factors, participants at the top tertile of MIND diet score were 51% less likely to have depression compared with those at the bottom tertile (OR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.18, 0.90). We found no significant association between the MIND diet score and odds of anxiety (OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 0.71, 1.95) and sleep disturbances (OR: 1.25; 95% CI: 0.86, 1.81). CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that more adherence to the MIND diet might be negatively associated with the odds of depression in physically active adults. No such significant association was found for the odds of anxiety or sleep disturbances. More studies are warranted.