Ages-specific beverage consumption and its association with depression and anxiety disorders: A prospective cohort study in 188,355 participants

Abstract

Background: Diet habit is associated with mental health which has been suggested to be an independent risk factor. Nevertheless, evidence concerning the association between beverage consumption and age-specific mental health remains limited. Here we estimate the association between six types of beverages and depression and anxiety disorders.

Methods: We included 188,355 participants who completed at least one dietary questionnaire and were free of depression and anxiety disorders at baseline from the UK-Biobank. Cox proportional hazard models and substituting analyses were used.

Results: (i) During an average of 11.15 years of follow-up, 5884(3.12 %) participants with incident depression and 6445(3.42 %) anxiety disorders were documented. (ii)In individuals aged <60 years, the consumption of SSBs (sugar-sweetened beverages) and ASBs (artificially-sweetened beverages) (>1 serving/day) was associated with higher hazard of depression disorders (SSBs: HR 1.14, 95 % CI 1.02-1.28; ASBs: HR 1.23, 95 % CI 1.09-1.38); whereas, intakes of pure fruit/vegetable juices (PiSs) and coffee were associated with lower hazard of depression disorders(PiSs: HR 0.81, 95 % CI 0.72-0.92; coffee: HR 0.88, 95 % CI 0.81-0.96). (iii)In individuals aged ≥60 years, higher intakes of PiSs and coffee were related to lower hazard of depression and anxiety disorders. (iv)Replacing PiSs or coffee with SSBs was significantly associated with reduced depression and anxiety disorders in individuals aged <60 years while replacing PiSs or coffee with milk was consistently correlated with lower depression and anxiety disorders in those aged over 60 years.

Conclusion: Individual beverages showed divergent associations with depression and anxiety disorders at different age levels, which underscores the potential relationship of prudent beverage choices in mitigating the risk of mental health.

Keywords: Anxiety disorders; Beverage; Coffee; Depression disorders; Pure fruit juices; Sugar-sweetened beverages.