(P20-003-24) Depression Is Associated With Gender, Food insecurity, and Metabolic Syndrome in Early Adults: NHANES Analysis

Objectives: Young adults (18-25) have been reported to have relatively high prevalence of mental health disorders among the US population. However, there are few studies that have studied a wider young adult age-range termed early adults (20-39) and have linked these mental health disorders to the diet behavior and metabolic syndrome (MetS). The objective of this study was to assess depression among early adults and determine its association with sociodemographic factors, food insecurity, diet behavior and MetS.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017 to March 2020 pre-pandemic cycle was analyzed. Early adults (20-39years) with relevant complete data were included in the analysis. The prevalence and relationship of depression with food insecurity, MetS, diet behavior and sociodemographic characteristics were determined. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Chi square and Logistic regression analyses were carried out at α_0.05.

Results: A total of 1823 participants were studied with 48.4% males and 51.6% females. About 10.5% were depressed, 23.6% had MetS and 25.3% were food insecure. Depression was significantly associated with gender (X² =5.9, P=0.015), ethnicity/race (X² =116.9, P=0.001), education level (X² =15.4, P=0.004), marital status (X² =25.1, P< 0.001), MetS (X² =8.1, P=0.004), how healthy the diet is (X² =23.5, P=0.001), and food insecurity (X² =44.5, P< 0.001). The odds of a female being depressed was 1.786 times (95% CI: 1.089-2.928) that of a male. The odds of a participant with MetS being depressed was 1.874 (95% CI: 1.124-3.124) times that of a participant without MetS. Individuals with "Very low food security" had odds of depression that were 3.265 times those with "Full food security".

Conclusions: In this study, the issues of food insecurity and MetS were both closely related to nutrition as strong predictors of depression, which was prominent among females, and may need more clinical and public health attention.

Funding Sources: None