EFFECTS OF DIETARY-FAT INTERVENTION ON MENTAL-HEALTH IN WOMEN

Several studies have identified potential detrimental sequelae of chol esterol and fat-lowering interventions in randomized trials, Little re search has been published to document changes in mental health in wome n as a result of fat and cholesterol lowering interventions to prevent chronic disease, This paper examines the relationships among changes in dietary fat consumption and mental health in the Women's Health Tri al, a randomized, controlled trial to determine whether lowering fat c onsumption to 20% of daily calories could reduce the incidence of brea st cancer in women ages 45-69 years, Assessments were made at baseline and at the 12-month follow-up of several aspects of quality of life, including negative and positive affect and past, present, and future p erceptions of health, Mental health variables were measured by the Men tal Health Inventory, a standardized scale used in the Medical Outcome s study, Dietary intake was assessed for all subjects with the use of semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires, The change in mental h ealth values (follow-up minus baseline) was significantly different be tween intervention and control groups for three of the four psychologi cal variables: (a) anxiety; (b) depression; and (c) vigor, In all thre e cases, the direction of the change for intervention women was positi ve, Neither randomization assignment nor percent of calories from fat at the follow-up visit were significant predictors of mental health at the 1-year follow-up, Cholesterol changes were not related to levels of mental health variables in a sample of the women, These data indica te that lowering fat in the diets of healthy women does not produce ov erall lowering of any mental health variables, These findings are enco uraging, because lowering dietary fat is a national priority and will receive more research and public health attention in future years.