Perinatal influences on children’s anxiety and depressive symptoms: mediating role of eating and energy-balance related behaviours – PED-DIAT

The burden of anxiety and depressive symptoms is substantial in France and worldwide. Environmental factors during critical developmental periods could have long-term effects on children's mental health. While epidemiological studies have suggested associations between eating and energy balance-related (dietary intake, physical activity, sedentary behaviours) behaviours and mental health in both mother and child, these studies have been conducted on individual associations or using multi-behavioural patterns, but not in a comprehensive manner. In this context, the first objective of the project is to estimate the extent to which maternal postnatal mental health status and child's dietary intake at age 2y mediate the relationship between maternal diet quality during pregnancy and child's anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 5y. The second objective is to elucidate if maternal postnatal mental health status influences child’s energy balance-related behaviours considered separately (dietary intake, physical activity, sedentary behaviours) at age 2y, accounting for their relationships and impacts on child’s anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 5y. The third objective is to study whether child’s eating behaviours at age 7y mediate the associations between maternal postnatal mental health or breastfeeding practices, and child’s anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 10y. Analyses will be performed on data from the Étude Longitudinale Française depuis l’Enfance, a French nationwide birth cohort including 18,329 newborns in 2011. The project results will shed new light on the target phases of perinatal and childhood diet/mental health schemes for preventive intervention strategies of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Given the high rate of recurrence of anxiety and depressive disorders throughout the lifespan, prevention of these disorders from the perinatal stage could have considerable repercussions in terms of health economics and population burden.