ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1587322
This article is part of the Research TopicNutrition and Mood DisordersView all 12 articles
Sex-specific differences in the association of dietary riboflavin intake with depression and suicidal ideation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
- 2Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
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Background: Attention is increasingly focused on the relationship between dietary micronutrients and affective disorders. Currently, the association of riboflavin intake with depression and suicidal ideation is controversial. Therefore, the present study utilized a large population-based database to explore these relationships.We included 29,466 participants. The study data was weighted for analysis.The associations of dietary riboflavin intake with depression and suicidal ideation were examined using logistic regression models. To elucidate the dose-response relationship of dietary riboflavin intake with outcomes, we used restricted cubic splines. Recursive methods were utilized to identify the inflection point. Subsequently, stratified analyses were conducted to investigate differences across subgroups.After adjusting for all confounding factors, the ORs (95% CIs) for the association of dietary riboflavin intake with depression and suicidal ideation were 1.02 (0.93, 1.11) and 1.09 (0.93, 1.28), with no statistical significance. The restricted cubic splines indicated non-linear associations, and the relationship of dietary riboflavin intake with depression was inverse only before the inflection point (1.44 mg/day). In the relationship with suicidal ideation, significant association was found both before and after the inflection point (1.42 mg/day). Furthermore, sex-specific subgroup differences were found.In this large-sample study, the non-linear association of dietary riboflavin intake with depression and suicidal ideation was found. Furthermore, differences in this relationship based on sex were observed.
Keywords: Sex-specific, Dietary riboflavin, Depression, Suicidal Ideation, Cross-sectional study
Received: 04 Mar 2025; Accepted: 21 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chu, Liu, Peng and Qiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Wei Peng, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
Tianci Qiao, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
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