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Eating behaviors and depressive symptoms among Japanese workers: the Furukawa Nutrition and Health Study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 78, pages 307–313 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives

In addition to the potential effects of nutrients on mood, eating behaviors have been suggested to be associated with depressive symptoms. We investigated the prospective association between the accumulation of unhealthy eating behaviors and depressive symptoms in a Japanese working population.

Methods

Participants were 914 workers (aged 19–68 years) who did not have depressive symptoms at baseline (April 2012 and May 2013) and attended a 3-year follow-up survey (April 2015 and May 2016). Unhealthy eating behaviors (skipping breakfast, eating dinner just before bedtime, and snacking after dinner) were assessed at baseline. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale at follow-up. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio of depressive symptoms (CES-D score ≥16) at follow-up according to the number of unhealthy eating behaviors.

Results

In a model with adjustment of background factors, participants having 2–3 unhealthy eating behaviors at baseline had significantly higher risk of developing depressive symptoms (OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.21–3.38) compared with those having no such behaviors. After adjustment for occupational and lifestyle factors, the association was slightly attenuated but remained significant (OR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.10–3.21). This association was further attenuated and became statistically non-significant after additional adjustment for nutritional factors (OR, 1.67; 95% CI, 0.96–2.90).

Conclusions

Our results suggest that the accumulation of unhealthy eating behaviors is associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms and that this association may be partly ascribed to a lower intake of nutrients with mood-improving effects.

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Data availability

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Hiroko Tsuruoka, Rie Ito, and Akiko Makabe (Furukawa Electric Corporation), and Yuriko Yagi (National Center for Global Health and Medicine) for their help with data collection.

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Industrial Health Foundation and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (25293146) and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) (25702006) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food and Health Sciences, International College of Arts and Sciences, Fukuoka Women’s University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Norika Yoshimaru & Akiko Nanri

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Center for Clinical Sciences, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Akiko Nanri & Tetsuya Mizoue

  3. Department of Health Administration, Furukawa Electric Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

    Masafumi Eguchi & Takeshi Kochi

  4. Kubota Corporation, Tsukubamirai, Japan

    Isamu Kabe

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  1. Norika Yoshimaru
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  6. Tetsuya Mizoue
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Contributions

AN and TM designed the research; AN, ME, TK, IK, and TM conducted the survey; NY and AN performed statistical analysis; TM provided statistical expertize; AN drafted the manuscript; AN and TM had primary responsibility for the final content; and all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akiko Nanri.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan.

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Yoshimaru, N., Nanri, A., Eguchi, M. et al. Eating behaviors and depressive symptoms among Japanese workers: the Furukawa Nutrition and Health Study. Eur J Clin Nutr 78, 307–313 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-023-01391-8

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