Dietary Pattern, Nutrition Status, and Depression among Medical Students in a University in Bangkok
Keywords:
Dietary Pattern, Nutritional status, Depression, Medical studentsAbstract
Depression is a common psychiatric problem that can lead to suicide. Medical students are at high risk for this issue, and studies have shown that diet and nutrition are also related to depression. This cross-sectional study examines the proportion and association between dietary patterns, nutritional status, and depression among medical students at a university in Bangkok. Data was collected from first to sixth-year medical students through self-administered online questionnaires, consisting of personal information, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for depression assessment, a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire adapted for dietary patterns, and nutritional status information. Data was analyzed using Chi-square statistics for factor analysis related to depression, and logistic regression analysis for factors associated with depression. The study found that 26% of the medical students had depression. Positive aspects related to depression included the consumption of butter (OR = 7.071, 95% CI=1.570 - 31.859, P= 0.006) and iced coffee/cocoa/tea (with cream, milk, sugar) more than three times a week (OR = 5.486, 95% CI = 1.298 - 23.184, P= 0.037) compared to those who consumed them three times or less per week. Nutritional status and other factors showed no significant association with depression. However, this study has limitations due to the small sample size and the sensitive nature of psychiatric data collection. Additionally, the heavy academic and clinical workload of medical students may have resulted in incomplete data collection as initially planned, which prevents the findings from being generalized to the entire population.
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