Padrões alimentares de refeições e sintomas depressivos : estudo em uma coorte de estudantes universitários

Abstract

Depression is one of the most important mental disorders nowadays, with increasing prevalence worldwide. University students represent a risk group for the development of the disease, as they are subjected to new life situations, often stressful and challenging. In general, this population presents unhealthy eating habits, which may be associated with the development of depression. Thus, the central theme of this thesis is an approach to eating patterns and depressive symptoms among young college students. For this, two scientific articles were prepared. The first article aimed at verifying the incidence of depressive symptoms among college students and the sociodemographic, economic and lifestyle factors associated. We analyzed the four-year follow-up data from the ELESEU cohort, counted from university admission. The presence of depressive symptoms in the years following baseline was assessed by the Patient Health Questionaire-9. Incidence and incidence rate of depressive symptoms were calculated. Higher incidence was observed in female students; the incidence in the 2nd year of the course was higher for both sexes. Among men, the risk of developing depression during college life was higher among younger people and among those with moderate or high degrees of stress in the first year of the course. Among women, the risk was higher for those with high stress and who smoked and consumed alcohol at the same time when they entered university. In the second article, we sought to know the eating habits of college students in the first year of undergraduate education and associated factors. A total of 685 incoming students in the first semester of 2016 and 2017 years participated in the study. Food intake was assessed using the 24-hour Dietary Recall. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the dietary patterns (DP) of the main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Principal component analysis was adopted for factor extraction. General linear model with logarithm link and gamma family was used to analyze the association between sociodemographic, economic, lifestyle and eating behavior variables with adherence to DP at each meal. Three DP were extracted for each meal. For breakfast, the standards were called “University Restaurant”, “Coffee and Tea” and “Snack”. For lunch, the “Traditional”, “Western” and “Vegetarian” standards were extracted, and for dinner, the “University Restaurant”, “Western” and “Fashion Diet” standards. Students who ate meals on campus had higher adherence to the “University Restaurant” and “Coffee and Tea” DP for Dinner, and the “University Restaurant” for Dinner, and lower adherence to the “Lunch” DP, “Traditional” lunch and dinner. “Western” and “Trendy Diet” dining, showing the influence of food availability on campus on student eating patterns. Finally, in the third article, it was analyzed whether the lunch dietary patterns established at baseline were associated with the development of depression during the follow-up study. It was observed that, among girls, the greater adherence to the “Vegetarian” lunch dietary pattern at baseline increased the risk of depression when compared to those with lower adherence to this dietary pattern. Among boys, there was no association between the DP adherence and depression risk.