Cocoa for mental health, mortality and wellbeing.
How this Evidence Map was generated
We ran a systematic search of PubMed on 15th January 2022 for studies reporting on the relationship between cocoa products including chocolate and mental health, serious diseases, mortality, quality of life or wellbeing outcomes.
We also ran targeted searches for background evidence relevant to the mechanisms of action of chocolate compounds or on the incidence and prevalence of burnout syndrome in different countries.
The systematic search was limited to papers published from 2010 onwards, but targeted searches had no date limit.
The abstracts are indexed to the following fields:
- Value messages - the value messages in the global value dossier to which the study relates
- Value position - whether the study/evidence is supportive of the claims and statements in the global value dossier
- Review category - the type of search that was conducted to obtain the evidence, i.e. a systematic search for the health effects of cocoa, targeted searches for prevalence of burnout and other background information
- Topic - the main topic or outcomes being discussed in the study
- Intervention - the type of chocolate intervention being assessed, e.g. solid chocolate, cocoa extract, polyphenols
- Disease - the disease or condition being investigated or assessed in the study
- Subpopulation - the age and gender of subjects of the research, e.g. female, male, infant, child, adolescent, adult, elderly
- Study methodology - the methodology used by the researchers e.g. randomised controlled trial, observational, systematic review
- Study size - the number of participants in the study
- Locations - the geographical location of the study or, if not clear, the authors' locations
- Prevalence of burnout - the percentage of study participants reported to have burnout syndrome or emotional exhaustion
- Publication year
