The Relationship of Dietary Nutrients with Depression, Anxiety and Stress: A Sample of Nutrition and Dietetics Students

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between dietary nutrients intake according to Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) recommendations and depression, anxiety and stress levels of nutrition and dietetics students.

Method: The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Uskudar University in the 2019-2020 academic year, voluntarily, questioning demographic characteristics, “Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42)” and “3-Day Food Consumption Record Form” were applied face-to-face interview method. IBM SPSS v26® software was used in the analysis of the data.

Results: A total of 251 undergraduate students, whose 94.4% was female participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 20.63±1.51 years, and the mean Body Mass Index (BMI) was 21.36±3.11 kg/m2. Anxiety levels of students whose daily vitamin B-2 intake were below the DRI and depression levels of students whose daily vitamin C intake were above the DRI were statistically significantly higher (p<0.05). Depression, anxiety and stress levels of students whose daily dietary carbohydrate intake, vitamin B-1, biotin, folic acid and phosphorus, iodine, selenium were above the DRI and whose daily dietary protein intake, percentage of total energy from fat, daily dietary omega-3, vitamins A, E, K, B-5 and calcium, zinc, manganese intakes were below the DRI were higher, but they were not statistically significant. (p>0.05).

Conclusions: The deficiency or excess of some nutrients according to DRI was correlated with some mood disorders.