Study on the Relationship between the Nutrient Intake and Level of Depressive Symptoms: Using the Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the nutrient intake and level of depressive symptoms. A total of 5,761 subjects with depression were selected for the main data analysis from a Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, KNHANES (2016), and were divided into low depressed and high depressed groups. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis, χ2-test, logistic regression, and t-test using SPSS 24.0 statistics. The results revealed significant differences in the prevalence of depression according to sex (P < 0.001), age (P < 0.001), income (P < 0.001), and education (P < 0.001). Regarding the health behavior, higher stress levels (P < 0.001) and smoking habit (P < 0.001) appeared to be strongly associated with high levels of depression. On the other hand, the possibility of experiencing depressive symptoms was lower when the number of walking days per week was more than 3 days (P < 0.05), when the number of working days per week was more than 5 days (P < 0.01), and the rate of aerobic physical activity was higher. Based on the ‘Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans 2015’, the subjects in the low depression group showed better intake of energy and 22 nutrients than the high depression group.