title: Green tea consumption is associated with depressive symptoms in the elderly.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Green tea is reported to have various beneficial effects (eg, anti-stress response and antiinflammatory effects) on human health. Although these functions might be associated with the development and progression of depressive symptoms, no studies have investigated the relation between green tea consumption and depressive symptoms in a community-dwelling population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to investigate the relations between green tea consumption and depressive symptoms in elderly Japanese subjects who widely consumed green tea.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a cross-sectional study in 1058 community-dwelling elderly Japanese individuals aged >or=70 y. Green tea consumption was assessed by using a self-administered questionnaire, and depressive symptoms were evaluated by using the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale with 2 cutoffs: 11 (mild and severe depressive symptoms) and 14 (severe depressive symptoms). If a participant was consuming antidepressants, he or she was considered to have depressive symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of mild and severe and severe depressive symptoms was 34.1% and 20.2%, respectively. After adjustment for confounding factors, the odds ratios (95% CI) for mild and severe depressive symptoms when higher green tea consumption was compared with green tea consumption of <or=1 cup/d were as follows: 2-3 cups green tea/d (0.96; 95% CI: 0.66, 1.42) and >or=4 cups green tea/d (0.56; 95% CI: 0.39, 0.81) (P for trend: 0.001). Similar relations were also observed in the case of severe depressive symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A more frequent consumption of green tea was associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms in the community-dwelling older population.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biomedical Engineering for Health and Welfare, Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Sendai, Japan. ggg@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kaijun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hozawa
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuriyama
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ebihara
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakaya
authors.forename: Kaori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohmori-Matsuda
authors.forename: Hideko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Yayoi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masamune
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asada
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Awata
authors.forename: Ryoichi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nagatomi
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsuji
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D013662:Tea
chemical_list: D013662:Tea