Correlation Between Dietary Zinc Intakes and Its Serum Levels with Depression Scales in Young Female Students

Abstract

It has been suggested that mood disorders and depressive status may be accompanied by lowered zinc status in the body, and adequate consumption of zinc increases a general perceived well-being. The main objective of this study was to assess the correlation between serum zinc concentrations and dietary zinc intakes with depression scores in university female students. In the first phase, Beck's depression questionnaire was applied in a random sampling of 308 selected 20-25-year-old female students (one third of total students in Ahvaz Jondi-Shapour University of Medical Sciences Golestan dormitories) to assess the major depressive disorder (MDD) scales. Then, in the second phase, 23 students who identified as having moderate and severe depression were selected as the case group, and 23 healthy age matched were chosen as the controls. Each of them completed a 12-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire containing the main food sources of zinc in the usual dietary patterns and also a 24-h food recall questionnaire to assure the daily zinc intakes. Daily zinc intakes were obtained by multiplying each portion size by its zinc content using food tables. A 5-ml blood sample was taken for further serum zinc status using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry technique. Pearson's r was used to show the correlation between quantitative variables. Both daily zinc intake and serum zinc concentrations of MDD group were about two thirds of healthy index (p < 0.01). Depressed individuals used to eat lower servings of red meats and chicken as the main food sources of zinc in students' usual diets (p < 0.001). Consumption of other foods as the sources of zinc was not significantly different in two groups. A linear significant correlation between dietary zinc intakes and its serum levels was seen in samples (r = 0.62; p < 0.001) and MDD students (r = 0.55; p < 0.001). There was a linear inverse correlation between Beck questionnaire scores and serum zinc concentrations in all of the investigated students(r = -0.65; p < 0.001) and MDD girls (r = -0.71; p < 0.001). Beck questionnaire scores and diatary zinc intakes were also inversly correlated (r = -0.58; p < 0.001). However, no statistical correlation was seen between these two variables in MDD cases. In depressed female students, dietary zinc intake is correlated to its serum concentrations; however, the serum zinc levels are inversely correlated to depression scales. Consumption of the main dietary sources of zinc such as red meats and chicken should be encouraged in young depressed girls.

Zinc and human health: an update

“…Moreover, clinical studies demonstrated the benefit of zinc supplementation in antidepressant therapy in major depression (Nowak et al 2003;Whittle et al 2009). Amani et al (2010) reported an inverse relationship between depression symptoms and both dietary intake of zinc and serum levels of zinc; the results of the study also showed a positive correlation between dietary intake of zinc and serum levels of zinc. Furthermore, studies with animals have also shown that zinc deficiency in mice enhanced depression-like behaviors (Whittle et al 2009).…”

Dietary patterns derived by reduced rank regression (RRR) and depressive symptoms in Japanese employees: The Furukawa nutrition and health study

“…Therefore, the score for dietary patterns analyzed by this method is likely to be associated with the disease. We selected the following six nutrients as potentially protective factors for depression: folate (Gilbody et al, 2007), vitamin C (Woo et al, 2006;Oishi et al, 2009), magnesium (Jacka et al, 2009(Jacka et al, , 2012Yary et al, 2013), calcium (Bae and Kim, 2012), iron (Woo et al, 2006), and zinc (Amani et al, 2010;Jacka et al, 2012;Maserejian et al, 2012;Yary and Aazami, 2012;Vashum et al, 2014). In addition, we found that these nutrients were inversely associated with depressive symptoms in a preliminary analysis in our study population.…”

Dietary Intake of Zinc was Inversely Associated with Depression

“…The results persisted even after we controlled for several potential confounding variables related to depression symptoms, including sex, age, BMI, monthly expenses, close friends, living in campus, smoking, physical inactivity, education, and marital status Our results support the findings of previous research with humans and animals showing that dietary intake of zinc may modulate symptoms of depression. For example, Amani et al [13] reported an inverse relationship between depression symptoms and both dietary intake of zinc and serum levels of zinc in 20-to 25-year-old female students; the results of the study also showed a positive correlation between dietary intake of zinc and serum levels of zinc [13]. Studies with animals have also shown that zinc deficiency in mice enhanced depression-like behaviors [21].…”