Association between dietary spermidine intake and depressive symptoms among US adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2014

Spermidine (SPD) has a number of advantageous effects, including life extension and neuroprotection. However, few observational studies have investigated the association of dietary SPD intake with depression. We used data from the 2005–2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the corresponding Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED). SPD content of food groups from published data were merged with the appropriate FPED data to estimate the SPD intake for each subject. Patients with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores of 10 or above were thought to experience clinically relevant depression symptoms. Logistic regression, sensitivity analysis, and restricted cubic spline (RCS) were used. Among the 19,306 participants, the overall prevalence of depression was 8.72 %. After controlling for relevant confounders, individuals in the highest tertile or quartile of total SPD and SPD derived from fruits, vegetables, cereals, nuts, eggs and seafood had a significantly lower prevalence of depression (OR total SPD = 0.77, 95 % CI: 0.63–0.93); OR fruit-sourced SPD = 0.81, 95 % CI: 0.68–0.95; OR vegetable-sourced SPD = 0.72, 95 % CI: 0.61–0.85; OR cereals-sourced SPD = 0.73,95 % CI:0.60–0.88; OR nuts- sourced SPD = 0.80, 95 % CI: 0.71–0.91; OR egg-sourced = 0.72, 95 % CI: 0.62–0.84 and OR seafood-sourced SPD = 0.65, 95 % CI: 0.55–0.77) comparing those in the lowest tertile or quartile. Our fndings reveal a negative association between dietary SPD intake and depression.