Food consumption frequency and perceived stress and depressive symptoms among female university students in the UAE: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Background College students lack experience and ability to cope and adapt with their new life events which make them more prone to experience stress or depression that could affect their dietary behavior. There may be an increase or a decrease in the consumption of a certain food group under stress or depression, and the amount of food ingested in general may differ as well. These changes in eating behavior could lead to lifestyle behaviors affecting the overall health and well-being of a population. This study assessed whether perceived stress and depressive symptoms predict the frequency of consumption of specific food groups among female university students.Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among female university students using a simple random sampling method. The response rate was 97% yielded a total number of 385 participants. The associations between stress levels and the most/least consumed food groups, and between depressive symptoms levels and the most/least consumed food groups were assessed. The questionnaire included a 12-item self-administered food frequency questionnaire, Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory-II. The study was approved by the University Ethical Committee before data collection. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) or the independent-sample t-test were carried out to test the equality of population means across the categories of each independent variable (predictor) depending on the independent variable number of categories.Results Overall, this group of female university students fell under the mild mood disturbance category (depressive symptoms) (BDI-II) and had moderate perceived stress (PSS). Perceived stress was associated with more frequent consumption of salad/raw vegetables and cooked vegetables, and less frequent consumption of cake/cookies and meat/sausage products (p<.05). Additionally, depressive symptoms were associated with less frequent consumption of fresh fruits and more consumption of fast food/canned food and soft drinks (p<.05).Conclusions The data showed that stress and depression predicted different dietary preferences consistent with distinctions between stress and depression on human behavior. Specifically, the results revealed associations between soft drinks consumption and higher depressive symptoms, and between frequent consumption of salad/raw vegetables and cooked vegetables and higher perceived stress among this group of female university students.