Associations of Long-Term Tea Consumption with Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Community-Living Elderly: Findings from the Diet and Healthy Aging Study

Objective: To examine the association between long-term tea consumption and depressive and anxiety symptoms in community-living elderly.

Design: Community based cross-sectional study.

Setting: The Diet and Healthy Aging Study (DaHA), a prospective cohort study in Singapore.

Participants: 614 elderly aged 60 years and above, who were free of dementia and cognitive impairment.

Measurements: Information on tea consumption was obtained through interviewer-administered questionnaire. Long-term tea drinking was defined as regular consumption for at least 15 years. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and the 20-item Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), respectively. A generalized structural equation model (gSEM) was applied to ascertain the association between long-term tea consumption and depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Results: About 59% of the subjects had consumed tea for over 15 years. Long term tea consumption was significantly associated with a reduced odds of having depressive and anxiety symptoms, after adjusting for demographics (i.e., age, gender, education and ethnicity), comorbid conditions (i.e., heart disease, diabetes, stroke, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia) and long-term coffee consumption.

Conclusion: There was evidence suggesting that long-term tea consumption was associated with reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms among community-living elderly. This suggests that it is worthwhile to further investigate the role of tea's bioactive compounds in promoting mental health in aging.