Association of dietary patterns with anxiety, depression, and stress in patients with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study

Background

psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress are common among patients with type 2 diabetes. Dietary patterns are more likely to have an essential role in the control of diabetes and its complications.

Objective

This study was conducted to assess the associations between dietary patterns with psychological parameters, and fasting blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Methods

This cross-sectional study involved 419 men and women with type 2 diabetes aged between 25–50 years old from five health centers in Arak City, Iran. Anthropometric indices and fasting blood sugar were measured and a 168-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was collected for the extraction of main dietary patterns.

Result

We found that adhering to a healthy dietary pattern was associated with a lower risk to stress (odds ratio: 0.31, 95% confidence interval: 0.13-0.72 P-trend= 0.002) while adhering to a western dietary pattern linked to higher fasting blood glucose (odds ratio: 2.25, 95% confidence interval: 1.00-5.06 P-trend= 0.039) after taking into account for confounding factors by ANCOVA. We found no significant correlation between the dietary patterns and both anxiety and depression.

Conclusion

It seems that in patients with type 2 diabetes, following a healthy dietary pattern is more likely to inversely associated with the risk of stress and hyperglycemia.