Relationship between diet and mental health in children and adolescents: a systematic review

We systematically reviewed 12 epidemiological studies to determine whether an association exists between diet quality and patterns and mental health in children and adolescents; 9 explored the relationship using diet as the exposure, and 3 used mental health as the exposure. We found evidence of a s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 2014-10, Vol.104 (10), p.e31-e42
Main Authors: O'Neil, Adrienne, Quirk, Shae E, Housden, Siobhan, Brennan, Sharon L, Williams, Lana J, Pasco, Julie A, Berk, Michael, Jacka, Felice N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Health
Anxiety
Behavior
Child
Child development
Children & youth
Cohort analysis
Cross-sectional studies
Diet
Diet - statistics & numerical data
Food
Health care
Humans
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Mental Health
Mental Health - statistics & numerical data
Nutrition/Food
Online Systematic Review
Public health
Risk Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Studies
Systematic review
Teenagers
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Summary:We systematically reviewed 12 epidemiological studies to determine whether an association exists between diet quality and patterns and mental health in children and adolescents; 9 explored the relationship using diet as the exposure, and 3 used mental health as the exposure. We found evidence of a significant, cross-sectional relationship between unhealthy dietary patterns and poorer mental health in children and adolescents. We observed a consistent trend for the relationship between good-quality diet and better mental health and some evidence for the reverse. When including only the 7 studies deemed to be of high methodological quality, all but 1 of these trends remained. Findings highlight the potential importance of the relationship between dietary patterns or quality and mental health early in the life span.
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/ajph.2014.302110