An Investigation into The Diets and Nutritional Knowledge of Young Men with Depression (The “MENDDS” survey).

ABSTRACT Background Currently 1 million Australians are living with depression each year, with an average of one in eight men experiencing the disorder. Studies have shown that individual nutrients, fruit and vegetable intake, polyphenols and whole dietary patterns can have a positive impact on depressive symptoms. In particular, the Mediterranean diet has shown promising preliminary findings. Objectives To assess the diet quality and knowledge of young men in relation to depressive symptoms. Design A cross-sectional online survey collected data from 384 young Australian men aged between 18-25 with diagnosed depression. Pearson's chi-square test was used for ordinal categorical variables. Results Dietary intake amongst this demographic was poor. Discretionary foods were consumed 2-3 times per week, including pizza (41%), fried potato such as French fries or hash browns (29%) and chocolate (25%). Roughly half of participants (47%) report never consuming wholegrains or legumes and only 9% consume vegetables twice or more per day. Healthy eating is perceived as both time consuming (82%) and expensive (70%). One third (32%) of participants perceive diet to have a big impact and 29% a slight impact on their mental health with only 5% reporting that diet has no impact on their mental health. However, the majority of participants (84%) believe it is ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to eat an overall healthy diet and 77% reported being willing to change their diet if it improved their depression symptoms. Conclusions These results highlight the relatively poor diets of this demographic who would greatly benefit from a quality diet such as the Mediterranean diet. The reported willingness to change their diets is encouraging and supports the viability of dietary intervention trials in this demographic. The dietary data presented in this study can be used to develop targeted interventions aimed at improving the diets of depressed young men.