Hostname: page-component-7857688df4-7g6pc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-19T11:54:47.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fish consumption and self-reported physical and mental health status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Karen M Silvers  and
Kate M Scott
Karen M Silvers*
Affiliation:
New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research, Private Bag 11600, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Kate M Scott
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Wellington School of Medicine, New Zealand
*
*Corresponding author: Email silversk@crop.cri.nz
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Objective:

The aim of this study was to assess whether self-reported mental health status, measured using the SF-36 questionnaire, was associated with fish consumption, assessed using a food-frequency questionnaire.

Design:

The cross-national data were collected in the 1996/97 New Zealand Health Survey and 1997 Nutrition Survey, which were conducted using the same sampling frame. Survey respondents were categorised into those who consumed no fish of any kind and those who consumed some kind of fish, at any frequency. Data were adjusted for age, household income, eating patterns, alcohol use and smoking. Other demographic variables and potential confounding nutrients were included in the preliminary analyses but were not found to have a significant relationship with fish consumption.

Subjects:

Data from a nationally representative sample of 4644 New Zealand adults aged 15 years and over were used in this analysis.

Results:

Fish consumption was significantly associated with higher self-reported mental health status, even after adjustment for possible confounders. Differences between the mean scores for fish eaters and those who never eat fish were 8.2 for the Mental Health scale (P = 0.005) and 7.5 for the Mental Component score (P = 0.001). Conversely, the association between fish consumption and physical functioning was in the opposite direction (P = 0.045).

Conclusions:

This is the first cross-sectional survey to demonstrate a significant relationship between fish intake and higher self-reported mental health status, therefore offering indirect support for the hypothesis that ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may act as mood stabilisers.

Keywords

FishDietPolyunsaturated fatty acidsSelf-reported mental health statusDepression

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , June 2002 , pp. 427 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2002

References

1Hibbeln, J. Fish consumption and major depression. Lancet 1998; 351: 1213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2Peet, M, Murphy, B, Shay, J, Horrobin, D. Depletion of omega-3 fatty acid levels in red blood cell membranes of depressive patients. Biol. Psychiat. 1998; 43: 315–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3Edwards, R, Peet, M, Shay, J, Horrobin, D. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels in the diet and in red blood cell membranes of depressed patients. J. Affect. Disord. 1998; 48: 149–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4Stoll, AL, Severus, WE, Freeman, MP, et al. ω 3 fatty acids in bipolar disorder: a preliminary double-blind, placebo controlled trial. Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 1999; 56: 407–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5Cross-National Collaborative Group. The changing rate of major depression. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 1992; 268: 3098–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Klerman, GL, Weissman, MM. Increasing rates of depression. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 1989; 261: 2229–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7Taylor, TG, Gibney, MJ, Morgan, JB. Homeostatic function and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Lancet 1979; 2: 1378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8Eaton, MD, Konner, M. Paleolithic nutrition: a consideration of its nature and current implications. N. Engl. J. Med. 1985; 312: 283–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9Leaf, A, Weber, PC. A new era for science in nutrition. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1987; 45: 1048–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10Budowski, P. ω3-Fatty acids in health and disease. World Rev. Nutr. Diet. 1988; 57: 214–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Booth-Kewley, S, Friedman, HS. Psychological predictors of heart disease: a quantitative review. Psychol. Bull. 1987; 101: 343–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12Ministry of Health. Taking the Pulse: The 1996/97 New Zealand Health Survey. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 1999.Google Scholar
13Quigley, R, Watts, C. Food Comes First: Methodologies for the National Nutrition Survey of New Zealand. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 1997.Google Scholar
14Ware, JE, Sherbourne, CD. The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Med. Care 1992; 30: 473–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15Sullivan, M, Karlson, J, Ware, J. The Swedish SF-36 health survey. I. Evaluation of data quality, scaling assumptions, reliability and construct validity across general populations in Sweden. Soc. Sci. Med. 1995; 42: 1349–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Ware, JE, Kosinski, M, Gandek, B, et al. The factor structure of the SF-36 health survey in 10 countries: results from the IQOLA project. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 1998; 51: 1159–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17Scott, KM, Tobias, M, Sarfati, D, Haslett, SJ. SF-36 Health Survey reliability validity and norms for New Zealand. Aust. NZ J. Public Health 1999; 23: 401–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18Ware, JE, Kosinski, M, Keller, SD. SF-36 Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales: A User's Manual. Boston, MA: The Health Institute, 1994.Google Scholar
19Simon, JA, Fong, J, Bernert, JT, Browner, WS. Relation of smoking and alcohol consumption to serum fatty acids. Am. J. Epidemiol. 1996; 144: 325–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20Pawlosky, RJ, Salem, N Jr. Alcohol consumption in rhesus monkeys depletes tissues of polyunsaturated fatty acids and alters essential fatty acid metabolism. Alcohol Clin. Exp. Res. 1999; 23: 311–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21Salem, N, Niebylski, C. The nervous system has an absolute requirement for proper function. Mol. Membr. Biol. 1995; 12: 131–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22Litman, BJ, Mitchell, DC. A role for phospholipid polyunsaturation in modulating membrane protein function. Lipids 1996; 31: S193–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23Slater, SJ, Kelly, MB, Yeager, MD, et al. Polyunsaturation in cell membranes and lipid bilayers and its effects on membrane proteins. Lipids 1996; 31: S189–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24Witt, MR, Westh-Hansen, SE, Rasmussen, PB, et al. Unsaturated free fatty acids increase benzodiqazepine receptor against binding depending on the subunit composition of GABA(A) receptor complex. J. Neurochem. 1996; 67: 2141–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25Ware, JE, Snow, KK, Kosinski, M, Gandek, B. SF-36 Health Survey. Manual and Interpretation Guide. Boston, MA: The Health Institute, 1993.Google Scholar
26Kazis, LE, Anderson, JJ, Meenan, RF. Effect sizes for interpreting changes in health status. Med. Care 1989; 27: S178–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27Russell, DG, Parnell, WR, Wilson, NC. Nutrition trends in New Zealand. New Zealand Public Health Rep. 1999; 6: 65–8.Google Scholar
28Conner, WE, Neuringer, M, Lin, DS. Dietary effects on brain fatty acid composition: the reversibility of ω-3 fatty acid deficiency and turnover of docosahexaenoic acid in the brain, erythrocytes, and plasma of rhesus monkeys. J. Lipid Res. 1990; 31(2): 237–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29Ascherio, A, Rimm, EB, Stampfer, MJ, et al. Dietary intake of marine ω-3 fatty acids, fish intake, and the risk of coronary disease among men. N. Engl. J. Med. 1995; 332: 977–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30Willett, WC. Epidemiologic studies of diet and cancer. Prog. Clin. Biol. Res. 1990; 346: 159–68.Google ScholarPubMed