Nutr Res Pract.  2021 Aug;15(4):468-478. 10.4162/nrp.2021.15.4.468.

Association between dietary omega-3 fatty acid intake and depression in postmenopausal women

• Chae M
• Park K

• KMID: 2518757
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4162/nrp.2021.15.4.468

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to analyze the association between dietary omega-3 fatty acid intake and depression in postmenopausal women using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) VI.
SUBJECTS/METHODS
The KNHANES is a cross-sectional nationwide health and nutrition survey. Dietary data, including omega-3 fatty acids, were assessed using the 24-h recall method. Depression was evaluated using a survey questionnaire. The association between dietary omega-3 fatty acids and depression was evaluated using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Depression, according to the dietary omega-3 fatty acid intake, was expressed as the odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 4,150 postmenopausal women were included in the analysis.
RESULTS
In the fully-adjusted model, the group with the highest dietary omega-3 fatty acid intake significantly showed lower prevalence of depression than the group with the lowest intake (OR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.33–0.83); a significant linear trend was detected (P for trend = 0.04). According to the dose-response analysis using cubic restricted spline regression, this association was linear and monotonic (P for non-linearity = 0.32).
CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the dietary omega-3 fatty acid intake in postmenopausal women was inversely proportional to depression in a dose-response manner. Large cohort studies are needed to verify the causality between omega-3 fatty acids and depression in Korean postmenopausal women.

Keyword

Omega-3 fatty acids; menopause; depression; women; Korea

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 ORs of the prevalence of depression by energy-adjusted intake levels of dietary omega-3 fatty acid via restricted cubic spline regression. Dashed lines represent the 95% confidence intervals. The models were adjusted for age, household income, obesity status, education level, alcohol consumption, smoking status, physical activity, use of dietary supplements, and energy-adjusted intake levels of dietary fiber and vitamin C (P for non-linearity = 0.32).OR, odds ratio.

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