Association between energy drink consumption, depression and suicide ideation in Korean adolescents

Hun Kim, Junha Park, Seungryul Lee, Sang Ah Lee and Eun-Cheol Park

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2020, vol. 66, issue 4, 335-343

Abstract: Background: Suicide is the leading cause of death among adolescents in South Korea. Negative influences of the abuse of energy drinks on mental health problems have emerged. Aims: This study aimed to analyze the relationship between energy drink consumption, depression and suicide ideation. Methods: We analyzed the data of 26,346 boys and 26,966 girls who participated in the 2015 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. The independent variable was the frequency of energy drink consumption per week. Experience of depression and suicide ideation were considered as the dependent variables. Multiple logistic regression was performed. Results: An association was found between energy drink intake per week and depressive mood. Moreover, the most frequent energy drink intake (three times or more per week) group showed the highest association with depressive mood (odds ratios (ORs); boys: ORs = 1.40, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25–1.56; girls: ORs = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.44–1.79) and suicide ideation (boys: ORs = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.27–1.69; girls: ORs = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.20–1.55). Conclusion: We observed that consumption of excessive amounts of energy drinks is associated with depression and suicide ideation. Therefore, appropriate regulation or education is needed to prevent adolescents from experiencing adverse outcomes.

Keywords: Energy drink; suicide; adolescents; caffeine; depression; suicide ideation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764020907946 (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:sae:socpsy:v:66:y:2020:i:4:p:335-343

DOI: 10.1177/0020764020907946

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().