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Dietary glycaemic load and odds of depression in a group of institutionalized elderly people without antidepressant treatment

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Abstract

Background

Depression is a very common disorder in elderly, especially in those institutionalized. Nutrition could play an important role in the onset and/or progression of depression, since the intake of carbohydrates with a high glycaemic index (GI) or diets with a high glycaemic load (GL) may increase the insulin-induced brain serotonin secretion.

Objective

The aim of our study was to analyse the association between dietary GI and GL and the odds of suffering depression in institutionalized elderly people without antidepressant treatment.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 140 institutionalized elderly people from the Madrid region (Spain) (65–90 years of age) whose diets were recorded using a precise weighing method over seven consecutive days. Energy and nutrient intakes were recorded and the GI and GL calculated. The participants’ affective capacity was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Subjects were grouped into non-depressed (GDS ≤ 5) and depressed (GDS > 5). Since GDS scores and gender were statistically associated (p < 0.01), the data were grouped considering this association.

Results

Dietary GI (51.09 ± 3.80) and GL (97.54 ± 13.46) were considered as medium. The dietary GL was significantly higher in the non-depressed (100.00 ± 12.13) compared with the depressed group (93.97 ± 14.04, p < 0.01). However, a similar GI was observed between non-depressed (51.50 ± 3.29) and depressed groups (50.52 ± 4.46). Additionally, participants with a dietary GL placed in the second and third tertiles had a 67.4 % and 65.3 %, respectively, less odds of suffering depression than those in the first tertile. GDS scores and dietary GL were inversely related; therefore, an increase in one unit in the dietary GL scale decreased the GDS score by 0.058 units.

Conclusions

Glyaemic load is associated with a lower odd of depression.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body mass index

GI:

Glycaemic index

GL:

Glycaemic load

BI:

Barthel index

MMSE:

Mini-Mental State Examination

CAMCOG:

Cambridge Cognitive Examination

GDS:

Geriatric Depression Scale

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Unilever Netherlands via the Universidad-Empresa project (138/2000).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Nutrición, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    A. Aparicio, A. M. López-Sobaler & R. M. Ortega

  2. Servicio de Geriatría, Hospital de Cantoblanco-Gregorio Marañón, Crta de Colmenar Km 14.5, Madrid, Spain

    F. Robles

  3. UCM Research Group VALORNUT (920030), Madrid, Spain

    A. Aparicio, A. M. López-Sobaler & R. M. Ortega

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  1. A. Aparicio
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  2. F. Robles
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Correspondence to A. Aparicio.

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Aparicio, A., Robles, F., López-Sobaler, A.M. et al. Dietary glycaemic load and odds of depression in a group of institutionalized elderly people without antidepressant treatment. Eur J Nutr 52, 1059–1066 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-012-0412-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-012-0412-7

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