Nutrition, immigrant status, other variables linked to PTSD risk
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Researchers identified several important considerations for PTSD management interventions aimed at middle-aged and older adults, according to study results published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
These included ethnicity, immigrant status and socioeconomic, health and nutrition status.
“To better understand the mental health of immigrants, research is needed about PTSD and factors which contribute to its manifestation, particularly among racial/ethnic groups to develop an evidence base which can better contribute to health practice and policies,” Karen M. Davison, PhD, director of the Nutrition Informatics Research Group and Health Science Program Faculty Member at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada, and colleagues wrote. “Using Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging data, PTSD and its relationships with ethnicity and immigrant status were analyzed while controlling for a number of covariates that included socioeconomic status, physical health (eg, multi-morbidity), health behaviors (eg, substance use, physical activity), over-nutrition (eg, disease risk), poor nutrition status (eg, handgrip strength, nutrition screen scores, body composition, anemia screen) and dietary intake.”
The investigators conducted binary logistic regression analysis of weighted comprehensive cohort data of 27,211 participants of the baseline Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. They used the four-item Primary Care-PTSD tool as the outcome and accounted for immigrant status by ethnicity, which was either Canadian-born white, Canadian-born minority, immigrant white or immigrant minority. Social, economic, nutrition and health-related variables served as covariates.
Results showed significantly higher risk for PTSD among immigrants from minority groups vs. their Canadian-born counterparts, whereas white immigrants had lower risk for PTSD, after controlling for socioeconomic and health variables. Seven cluster-based regression models demonstrated significantly robust associations. The researchers adjusted for ethnicity/immigrant status and reported higher risk for PTSD among individuals who earned lower household incomes; those who were widowed, divorce or separated; ever smokers; and those who had multi-morbidities, chronic pain, high nutritional risk or who reported daily consumptions of pastries, pulses and nuts, or chocolate. Individuals who were aged 55 years or older, who had high waist-to-height ratio or who consumed two to three fiber sources daily had significantly lower risk for PTSD.
“This investigation provides important insights for policy and program development to mitigate PTSD among mid-age and older adults, particularly for marginalized groups such as visible minority immigrants,” Davison and colleagues wrote. “Future investigations that use estimate models such as these as well as longitudinal analyses may better inform mental health practice and policies to both prevent and treat PTSD.”
Senior study author Esme Fuller-Thomson, PhD, director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging and professor at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, noted potential factors in the association between nutrition and PTSD.
“Some symptoms of PTSD, such as severe anxiety and depression, may also interfere with eating behaviors that are linked to increased nutritional risk,” Fuller-Thomson told Healio Psychiatry.