Association between dietary fat quality indices and mental health across age and sex groups: a cross-sectional study

Purpose Mental health significantly impacts individual and social well-being, influencing factors such as reproduction, work motivation, sleep and disease outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between dietary fat quality indices and mental health, particularly stress, anxiety and depression, in relation to a range of age and sex groups. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional study involved 172 adults (aged 18–65 years) residing in Tehran. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) for mental health assessment and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) for physical activity levels. Linear regression, ANOVA and ANCOVA tests were used for statistical analysis. Findings A total of 172 people (ages 18–65 years) from the original 352 samples were examined. In people under 30 years, the prevalence of severe anxiety was 78%, whereas in people over 30 years, it was 72.2%. Of the older group, 51.8% and 60.2% of the younger group suffered from severe depression. The thrombogenic index (TI), atherogenic index (AI) and hypocholesterolemic to hypercholesterolemic ratio (HH) were found to significantly inversely correlate with depression in men. Additionally, a noteworthy inverse relationship was found between stress and the cholesterol-saturated fat index (CSI). In addition, individuals under 30 years showed a clear relationship between anxiety and their saturated fat percentage (SFA). Originality/value The finding of this study showed that dietary fat quality indicators are strongly correlated with stress and depression; among individuals under 30 years, there is a significant relationship between anxiety and the percentage of saturated fat.