To comprehensively summarize the evidence on the associations of dietary copper, selenium, and manganese intake with depression based on a meta-analysis of observational studies.
The electronic database of PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase were searched up to January 7, 2022, for observational studies on the associations of dietary copper, selenium and manganese intake with depression (no restriction was set for the initiate time). The pooled relative risk (RR) of depression for the highest vs. lowest dietary copper, selenium, and manganese intake category were calculated.
A total of 11 observational studies (61,430 participants) were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria. Specifically, five studies were related to the dietary copper intake. The overall multi-variable adjusted RR demonstrated that dietary copper intake was inversely associated with depression (RR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.52–0.76;
Our results suggest a negative relationship between dietary copper, selenium and manganese intake and depression, respectively. However, due to the limited prospective evidence, our results are restricted to cross-sectional design that precludes causal relationships. More well-designed prospective cohort studies are still needed.