The relationship between diet quality and depression in Baqiyatallah Al-Azam Hospital staff

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders worldwide and has been reported as a consequence of stressful work environments including hospitals. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between diet quality and depression in Baqiyatallah Al-Azam Hospital staff in Tehran, Iran.

This cross-sectional study was performed with the participation of 100 female staff working in Baqiyatallah Al-Azam Hospital in Tehran with mean age of 37.28 ± 7.98 years and mean body mass index of 26.54±4.27 kg/m2. Depression symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II questionnaire. Food frequency questionnaire and Healthy Eating Index (HEI) were used to assess the quality of the diet. Nutritionist 4, SPSS software and Pearson correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. The significant level was considered less than 0.05.

The findings of the study revealed that the mean and standard deviation of depression score in the subjects was 11.71±7.7. The mean and standard deviation of HEI index in women under study was 64.5±8.1. The correlation coefficient between diet quality and depression in employees was -0.592, which was significant at the level of 0.01.

The results of the study showed that the quality of diet has a significant and inverse effect on employee depression. Further studies, especially prospective ones, are needed to confirm these findings in military communities.