Associations Between Adherence to the MIND Diet and Prevalence of Psychological Disorders, and Sleep Disorders Severity Among Obese and Overweight Women: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: The effect of dietary patterns on sleep disorders and mental illness has previously been investigated. However, these studies have reported contradictory findings, and thus, the present study aimed to assess the association of the MIND diet on the sleep pattern and mental health in obese women.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in which 282 women, aged 18-56 years with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m.with no underlying diseases and malignancies, and participated. We used a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to collect participant's dietary intake. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) were used to measure the status of sleep disturbance and psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, and stress respectively.

Results: A decreasing trend for psychological stress was observed in the highest quartiles of MIND diet score vs. the lowest quartiles (OR = 0.6 CI: 0.23-1.5 vs. 1.16 CI: 0.55-2.47). No significant difference was observed between severity of depression (OR = 0.87 95%, CI: 0.7-1.09,  = 0.23), anxiety (OR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.81-1.27,  = 0.86), stress (OR = 0.99 95%, CI: 0.79-1.23,  = 0.92), and MIND diet adherence in the crude and adjusted models.

Conclusion: The main finding from this study was that there is no significant association between adherence to the MIND diet and studied psychological disorders.