SynthesisHealth education research2023
A systematic review of the association of diet quality with the mental health of university students: implications in health education practice.
Synthesis in Health education research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Anti-inflammatory diets and mental health: a scoping review of randomized controlled trials and systematic evidence syntheses.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Enhancing Postsecondary Students' Dietary Behaviours: A Systematic Review of Mobile Health Interventions.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2025Pooled it
- Promoting healthy and sustainable diets through food service interventions in university settings: a scoping review.BMC nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of the Components of a Digital Multiple Health Behavior Intervention Among University Students (Buddy): Factorial Randomized Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Article
- Observational
- Cannabis Use and Diet Quality Among University Students: The Role of Meal Skipping and Health Behaviours.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Dietary Inflammatory Index and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese University Students Leveraging an Intelligent Ordering System: 3-Year Longitudinal Prospective Cohort Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Is the level of implementation linked with intervention outcomes? The process evaluation of the Veggie Van intervention to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in underserved communities.Research square · 2026Article
- Dietary Behaviors and Mental Health Disorders Among Private University Students in Dhaka North City Corporation, Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study.Public health challenges · 2026Article
- Changes in dietary habits and mental well-being among university students following an educational intervention: pilot study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Anxiety and lifestyle behaviors among Lebanese university students during armed conflict: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Anxiety associated with dietary intake and gut microbiome features in a cross-sectional cohort of sub-clinically anxious young women.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Nourishing minds: the connection between healthy eating and academic success in higher education.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Physical activity and wellbeing among pre-service helping professionals: the role of lifestyle in a Hungarian university sample.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Adherence to and factors associated with the adoption of healthy and sustainable diets in young Australian adults: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Context-aware digital nutrition and abdominal acoustic feedback in Taiwanese university students: a 12-week single-arm field intervention and a separate 4-week randomized feasibility pilot.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Social determinants of nutrition and academic performance: multiple correspondence and cluster analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Factors associated with common mental disorder symptoms and lived experiences among adults with hypertension in Nepal: a mixed-methods study.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
University students are at risk of experiencing mental health problems during the transition from home to university. This transition can also adversely affect their diet quality. This review aims to examine bidirectional associations from observational studies regarding the influence of diet quality on the mental health of university students, and vice versa. The databases PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, The Cochrane Library and Web of Science were searched using relevant search terms. The searches were last updated on 15 July 2022. Majority of studies (36 out of 45) found that good diet quality of students was associated with better mental health in terms of depression, anxiety, stress and overall general mental well-being. Moreover, majority of studies (19 out of 23) found that stress and anxiety of students were associated with poorer diet quality. The effect sizes observed were generally small-moderate. Healthy diets of students have been associated with better mental health in terms of depression, anxiety, stress or other mental health issues. Stress experienced by university students has been associated with unhealthy diets. There are implications for health education research, as interventions to improve diet quality at the university level could reduce mental health issues; additionally, interventions to support students under stress may lead to healthier dietary habits when living on campuses. Randomized controlled trials and intervention studies are needed to further investigate these implications.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.