Navigation
Association between junk food consumption and mental health in a national sample of Iranian children and adolescents: the CASPIAN-IV Study
The relationship between consumption of junk food (foods high in energy and low in nutritional content) with mental health was investigated in this 2014 study. The data on 13,486 children and adolescents in Iran were collected from the CASPIAN-IV (Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and Prevention of Adult Non communicable Disease) study, which involved school students, with the help of their parents, completing questionnaires obtained from the Global School Health Survey. Questions provided insight into the children’s psychiatric distress (worry, depression, confusion, insomnia, anxiety, aggression, and worthless) and violent behaviors (physical fighting, being a victim, and bullying). A significant association was discovered by Zahedi et al. (2014) between frequency of junk food (sweets, sweetened beverages, fast foods, and salty snacks) consumption and psychiatric distress (P < 0.001), while violent behaviors were also significantly correlated with junk food intake except for sweets (although the interaction between sweetened beverages and violent behaviors was not significant). Eating salty foods each day was significantly linked with violence such as physical fighting (odds ratio [OR] = 1.39), being a victim (OR = 1.19) and bullying (OR = 1.55). Furthermore, greater daily consumption of sweetened beverages and snacks significantly increased the risk for psychiatric distress. These results suggest that the risk of children and adolescents developing psychiatric distress and violent behaviors is raised by consuming junk foods. Thus, promoting the implementation of better eating habits and healthier diets may effectively improve mental health.
Year: 2014
