Nutrition and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling elderly persons in Japan.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the association between dietary intake and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling elderly persons. Five-hundred elderly persons aged 65 to 75 years were randomly selected from the population of O city in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Among 401 respondents (response rate, 80.0%), data from 279 (133 males, 146 females) who completed the questionnaire concerning dietary intake and depressive state were analyzed using logistic regression. Each of 17 dietary intakes was classified into tertiles:high intake, moderate intake, and low intake. The Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression scale (CES-D) was used. Among males, the observed odds ratios (the 95% confidence intervals) for the depressive state were 0.36 (95% CI:0.13-0.98) in the highest tertile of carotene intake, 0.33 (95% CI:0.12-0.93) in the highest tertile of vitamin C intake, 0.29 (95% CI:0.10-0.85) in the highest tertile of carbohydrate intake, and 0.33 (95% CI:0.12-0.92) in the medium tertile of vitamin E intake. Among females, similar results were observed, but these results were not statistically significant. The results suggested that carbohydrate, carotene, and vitamin C intakes are associated with lowering depressive symptoms among elderly persons dwelling in communities in Japan.