This UK Biobank cohort study examined whether duration of sugar rationing during the first 1000 days of life (1951–1956) was associated with adult diagnoses of anxiety and depression, using survival analysis (Weibull AFT models) and structural equation modelling (SEM) in 46,448 participants grouped by rationing exposure duration.
Participants rationed for the full 1000 days (R1000) had lower hazards of anxiety (HR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.53–0.84) and depression (HR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.57–0.87) vs. never-rationed controls; SEM confirmed a direct effect on anxiety (γ = –0.144, p = 0.012), but the depression association weakened and lost significance after adjusting for later-life sugar intake.
- Rationing exposure is ecologically assigned by birth date, not individually measured, introducing potential misclassification. - Observational design cannot establish causality; residual confounding by socioeconomic or wartime environmental factors is likely. - Depression findings were not robust across sensitivity analyses, limiting generalisability of that outcome.
Early-life sugar restriction during the first 1000 days may reduce long-term anxiety risk, supporting public health guidance to limit added sugar in infancy and early childhood. Clinicians counselling parents should emphasise low-sugar diets in this critical developmental window, though causal evidence remains limited.
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