Evaluating Mediterranean diet adherence in university student populations: Does this dietary pattern affect students' academic performance and mental health?
Marina Antonopoulou,
Maria Mantzorou,
Aspasia Serdari,
Konstantinos Bonotis,
Giorgos Vasios,
Eleni Pavlidou,
Christina Trifonos,
Konstantinos Vadikolias,
Dimitris Petridis and
Constantinos Giaginis
International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2020, vol. 35, issue 1, 5-21
Abstract:
Adherence to a healthy diet such as Mediterranean Diet (MD) may exert beneficial effects in university students, promoting their academic performance and quality of life, as well as their mental and physical health status. In this aspect, the present study aimed to critically analyze the current epidemiological evidence concerning MD adherence of university students' populations. PubMed database was comprehensively searched, using relative keywords. Students' dietary habits are moving away from MD guidelines towards unhealthy eating patterns, especially for those living away from home and even for students with a Mediterranean country origin. Most of the available studies have documented that poorer students' health status was associated with lower MD adherence. Higher MD adherence was correlated with lower depression risk, while higher perceived stress score with lower fruit and vegetables intake. The access of students to information and knowledge provided by courses and lectures did not effectively enhance their compliance to MD. Alarmingly enough, the majority of students, even from medical and nutritional university departments, showed inadequate knowledge on healthy eating habits. Due to the influence of diet on the quality of life and the mental and physical health of students, it is crucial to redirect research focus on this important aspect.
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)
Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.2881
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:35:y:2020:i:1:p:5-21
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0749-6753
Access Statistics for this article
International Journal of Health Planning and Management is currently edited by Calum Paton
More articles in International Journal of Health Planning and Management from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery (contentdelivery@wiley.com).