ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1655051
Associations of MIND and DI-GM Dietary Scores with Depression, Anxiety, and Gut Microbiota in Patients with Colon Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
- First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
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Background: Dietary patterns influence psychological health, systemic inflammation, and gut microbiota composition in colon cancer patients. This study evaluates the associations of the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) score and the Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota (DI-GM) with psychological outcomes, inflammatory markers, gut microbiota diversity (Shannon index) and composition (Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio), and tumor biomarkers in colon cancer patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 630 colon Cancer patients. Multivariate linear regression models adjusted for demographic, clinical, and dietary factors assessed associations of MIND and DI-GM scores with depression, anxiety (HADS), sleep quality (PSQI), quality of life (FACT-C), inflammatory markers (CRP, IL-6, fecal calprotectin), F/B ratio, and tumor biomarkers (CEA, CA19-9).Results: Higher MIND and DI-GM scores were significantly associated with better psychological outcomes and reduced systemic inflammation. Each one-unit increase in the MIND score was associated with lower depression (β = -1.16, 95% CI: -2.24 to -0.08) and anxiety (β = -2.48, 95% CI: -4.01 to -0.95). Similarly, DI-GM was inversely associated with depression (β= -1.36, 95% CI:-1.53 to -1.20), anxiety, and inflammatory markers. Tumor biomarkers such as CA19-9 and CEA showed significant inverse associations with both scores, especially DI-GM (CA19-9: β = -3.11, 95% CI: -4.93 to -1.29; CEA: β = -0.38, 95% CI: -0.55 to -0.20). The F/B ratio partially mediated the relationship between dietary scores and psychological outcomes but not inflammatory markers.Conclusions: Adherence to MIND and DI-GM dietary patterns is associated with better psychological outcomes, lower inflammation, and favorable gut microbiota in colon cancer patients. DI-GM may better capture diet-gut microbiota-inflammation links, highlighting diet as a target to improve patient well-being.
Keywords: Diet, Mediterranean, biomarkers, Depression, Gut Microbiota, Colon neoplasms
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Meng, Tian, Xiu Li² and Xu. 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: Zhou Xu, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
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