The dietary inflammatory index and its associations with sleep, mental health, quality of life and aggressive behavior in Iranian female adolescents

The relationship between the inflammatory potential of foods and sleep, mental health, quality of life and aggressive behaviors is not well understood in Iranian female adolescents. We aimed to address this since there is a high prevalence of these factors in this population. In this cross-sectional study, Dietary data was collected from 670 participants using a food frequency questionnaire. Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores for all participants were calculated and the data was split into quartiles based upon this. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios for quality of life, depression, aggression, insomnia, sleepiness across quartiles of DII and adjustments were applied for a range of confounders. Mean score of depression was significantly different between quartiles of DII score ( P = 0.02), but this disappeared after adjusting for confounders. Insomnia scores had significant differences across quartiles of DII score only in adjusted models ( P < 0.001). A significant difference was observed for daytime sleepiness score throughout quartiles of DII score in our model adjusted for age and energy ( P = 0.04). A positive association was seen between DII score and odds of depression, even after adjusting for age and energy (OR = 1.96; 95% CI = 1.18–3.27, P = 0.02). We did not find significant associations between quartiles of DII and odds of poor quality of life, aggression, insomnia, and daytime sleepiness. In summary, our finding reveal higher DII scores are associated with depression and sleep disruption in female adolescents in Iran. Therefore, anti-inflammatory foods should be recommended for consumption in this population.