The relationship between lifestyle factors, gastrointestinal health, and depression

Abstract

Lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity are involved in the development and maintenance of depression, but the mechanism between these factors remains unclear. This study investigates if gastrointestinal health could help explain the relationship between the lifestyle factors and depression. A multitude of questionnaires have been developed for the assessment of gastrointestinal symptoms, however, no “gold standard” has been established. In chapter one, a systematic review was carried out to gain an overview of all the self-report measures of gastrointestinal symptoms available in the literature. Standardised guidelines were used to evaluate the quality of methodology and psychometric properties. A total of 39 studies were identified including 34 self-report measures assessing symptoms across structural and functional gastrointestinal disorders. The results showed that the available self-report measures vary greatly in the reliability and validity. Recommendations are made based on the available evidence. In chapter two, a self-report gastrointestinal health measure is used as a proxy for gut microbiome alterations to explore its relationship with dietary intake, physical activity, and depression. The primary research question investigated if gastrointestinal health statistically mediates the relationship between the dietary intake, physical activity, and depression. Results from a series of mediation analyses suggested that gastrointestinal health partially mediates the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and depression. These data indicate that the effects of fruit and vegetable intake on depression partly work through the gastrointestinal system. The study also explored if these lifestyle factors and gastrointestinal health differ between healthy population, individuals with lifetime and current depression. The findings from the group comparisons were mixed.
Keywords: Gastrointestinal health, self-report measures, depression, dietary intake, physical activity

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Identifiers

ORCID for Deili Sinimeri: orcid.org/0009-0003-8799-983X

ORCID for Dennis Golm: orcid.org/0000-0002-2950-7935

ORCID for Caroline Childs: orcid.org/0000-0001-6832-224X

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