The association between Healthy Beverage Index and psychological disorders among overweight and obese women: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Healthy Beverage Index (HBI) is a valuable technique to estimate the synergistic effects of overall beverage consumption. Several studies have evaluated the associations between HBI and beneficial changes in the health status. however, there is no study on the association between patterns of beverage consumption and mental health status. Therefore, this study sought to examine the association between HBI and psychological disorders among overweight and obese women. METHODS: 199 overweight and obese women, between the ages of 18 and 55 y, were enrolled in this cross-sectional study in Tehran, Iran. To collect beverage dietary data, a validated semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used. Furthermore, the DASS-21 questionnaire was used to assess psychological profile states. RESULTS: The association of total depression anxiety stress (DASS) score with healthy beverage index (HBI) tertiles in models was marginally significant (OR =: 0.78; 95% CI 0.30–2.02; P-value = 0.074; (OR = 0.77; 95% CI 0.28–2.16; P-value = 0.062), respectively. In terms of stress, anxiety, and depression, after adjusting for confounders, participants with higher HBI in the third tertile had lower odds of depression vs. the first tertile (OR = 0.99; 95% CI 0.35–2.81; P-trend = 0.040). CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that the total DASS score was associated with HBI tertiles. We also found that participants with higher HBI had lower odds of depression. However, additional well-designed studies are needed to confirm the veracity of these findings.