| Background: Health related quality of life (HRQOL) is a potent indicator of individual’s happiness and life satisfaction.
The way in which the HRQOL is affected by the diet is a topic of constant interest and debate among researchers.
Evaluating the association between single nutrients or foods and HRQOL fails to take into consideration the complex
interactions between nutrients. Also, the findings from previous investigations on the relationship between dietary
patterns and HRQOL have been inconsistent. Therefore, our aim was to assess the existing evidence regarding the
relationship between the dietary patterns and HRQOL by conducting a systematic review.
Methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Sciences and Google scholar databases
from inception to March 2020, to identify studies that investigated associations between the dietary patterns (regardless
of methods used to define dietary patterns) and HRQOL domains. Two researchers independently checked titles
and abstracts, evaluated full-text studies, extracted data, and appraised their quality using the Newcastle–Ottawa
Scale (NOS).
Results: Thirteen studies (four longitudinal, and nine cross-sectional studies), with a total of 43,445 subjects, were
included. Of the studies included in this review, eight studies evaluated the association between 'Mediterranean'
dietary patterns (MDP) and HRQOL, while five studies examined the association between different dietary patterns
('Healthy', 'Unhealthy', 'Western', 'Fruit and vegetable', 'Bread and butter' and etc.) and HRQOL. Excluding three studies
which showed no significant association, healthy dietary patterns such as MDP, 'Healthy' and 'Fruit and vegetable'
dietary patterns were associated with better HRQOL in physical and mental components scores. The quality assessment
of included studies according to NOS criteria were ranged between medium to high quality.
Conclusion: According to the current evidence, 'Healthy' dietary patterns and “Mediterranean” dietary patterns are
associated with better dimension scores of HRQOL in both physical and mental summaries. While, unhealthy dietary
patterns and 'Western' dietary patterns are associated with lower scores of HRQOL. Further longitudinal studies are
required to clarify the association between dietary patterns and HRQOL |