Food consumption frequency and perceived stress and depressive symptoms among students in three European countries

Mikolajczyk and his team (2009) conducts a cross-sectional multinational survey on first-year university students in Germany, Poland and Bulgaria to draw comparisons between nutritional intake, stress and depressive symptoms, and to explore any variations between the results of each country. The tests conducted on the students include the Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (to assess stress levels), a 12-item food frequency questionnaire (looking at diet quality), and a modified Beck Depression Index (to rate depression levels). The results demonstrated a variation in all 3 factorial tests between the countries and gender. None of the male student groups were linked to perceived stress or depression risk, whereas, higher perceived stress reported could be related to more frequent intake of sweets and fast food. A decrease in fruit and vegetable consumption was also associated with depressive symptoms in the female students. [NPID: depression, anxiety, mental illness, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, stress, depressive symptoms, diet quality, fruit, vegetables, FV intake]

Year: 2009

Reference: Mikolajczyk, R. T., El Ansari, W., & Maxwell, A. E. (2009). Food consumption frequency and perceived stress and depressive symptoms among students in three European countries. Nutrition journal, 8, 31. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-8-31