Relationship Between Diet and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review
- 1 October 2014
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Public Health Association in American Journal of Public Health
- Vol. 104 (10), e31-e42
- https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2014.302110
Abstract
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.Keywords
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