Vegetarian diet and depression scores: a meta-analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.07.098

Commentary

Previous studies have suggested an association between vegetarianism and higher depression scores, but some research findings argue the opposite. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine if there is a significant association between vegetarianism and depression scores across a variety of published studies.

As a result, k = 13 studies including n 49889 participants (8057 vegan and 41832 non-vegetarian controls) were included in the analysis and reviewed. A variational effects meta-analysis showed a significant difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, with vegetarians having higher depression scores than non-vegetarians. However, these results should be interpreted with caution due to the high heterogeneity between studies, low geographic variation in study sites, and limited cross-cultural insights.

In conclusion, vegetarians show higher depression scores than non-vegetarians, but the published studies are very heterogeneous, so more empirical studies are needed to draw final conclusions.