Association between Psychological Disorders, Mediterranean Diet, and Chronotype in a Group of Italian Adults

Monica Dinu (), Sofia Lotti (), Antonia Napoletano, Abigail Corrao, Giuditta Pagliai, Marta Tristan Asensi, Vincenza Gianfredi, Daniele Nucci, Barbara Colombini and Francesco Sofi
Additional contact information
Monica Dinu: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Sofia Lotti: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Antonia Napoletano: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Abigail Corrao: Department of Human Science, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA
Giuditta Pagliai: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Marta Tristan Asensi: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Vincenza Gianfredi: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
Daniele Nucci: Nutritional Support Unit, Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS, Via Gattamelata, 64, 35128 Padua, Italy
Barbara Colombini: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Francesco Sofi: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Mental health conditions are a significant contributor to the global burden of disease. The aim of this study was to explore the association between psychological disorders, Mediterranean diet (MD), and chronotype. A total of 344 participants (74% women) with a mean age of 33.5 ± 13 years were recruited. According to the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) score, 22% of participants had symptoms of depression, 23% anxiety, and 10% stress. The assessment of MD adherence through the Medi-Lite score revealed that participants with psychological disorders had significantly ( p < 0.05) lower MD adherence than those without these conditions. Furthermore, less than 10% of the subjects with at least one symptom reported consuming the optimal amount of fruit and vegetables, while 72% showed excessive consumption of meat and meat products. Regarding chronotype, evening subjects reported the lowest MD adherence and the highest prevalence of all three psychological disorders analyzed. A multivariate analysis showed that female gender, age, being unmarried/single, sedentary lifestyle, and low MD adherence were associated with a significantly higher risk of depression, anxiety, and stress. Future studies are needed to explore the relationship between mental health and risk factors to improve personal and global population health.

Keywords: depression; anxiety; stress; Medi-Lite; Mediterranean diet; chronotype (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/335/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/335/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:335-:d:1014901

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().