Obesity-Associated Anxiety Is Prevalent among College Students and Alleviated by Calorie Restriction

Author:

Wang Junbo,Ran Xinyi,Ye Jinchen,Deng Run,Dang WeiminORCID,Fan Yangyi,Hu Zhiping,Yang Lei,Dong Wentian,Lv Yifei,Lin Kunzhan,Li Maoran,Jiang Yuhe,Zheng RuimaoORCID

Abstract

Anxiety is a common disorder among college students, especially those with obesity. Obesity contributes to metabolic disorders and disturbs the neural functions, further leading to anxiety. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to determine the association between obesity and anxiety among college students and identified the potential factors for obesity-associated anxiety. We evaluated the intervention effects of calorie restriction on anxiety. Self-reported questionnaires were distributed to 1381 college students from January to March in 2021. Anxiety was measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Participants were classified into anxiety and non-anxiety groups according to their STAI scores. Chi-squared test and logistic regression were used to analyze the potential factors. We found that 383 college students exhibited anxiety, accounting for 30.1% among all included college students, which was higher than the global average. The association between anxiety and obesity was observed among college students (p = 0.009), especially in males (p = 0.007). We identified that pre-obesity (p = 0.012), unhealthy calorie intake (p = 0.001), dieting (p = 0.003) and high academic year (p = 0.006) as the risk factors for anxiety and found that the long sleep duration was a protective factor for anxiety (p < 0.001). We found that more obese students showed an improvement of anxiety than the underweight students after calorie restriction (p < 0.001). Collectively, our findings suggest that obesity-associated anxiety is prevalent among the college students and could be alleviated by moderate calorie restriction. It is necessary for students to receive anxiety management in their college life. Additionally, the proper calorie restriction should be promoted to help students protect against obesity and obesity-associated anxiety.

Funder

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation

Peking University Research Foundation

National Key Research and Development Program of China

Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Food Science,Nutrition and Dietetics

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