Association of Perceived Stress and Symptoms of Depression with Eating Patterns among Students in a University in Delhi: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: The most common health problem among universitystudents is stress and hence a few symptoms of depression are quitefrequently observed among them. Depression can negatively affectone’s ability to work, study, eat, sleep and even enjoy life.Objective: To assess perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and eatingpatterns among college students and to assess the association of eatingpatterns with depressive symptoms and perceived stressMethodology: The current cross-sectional study was conducted forcollege students who were studying in eight different departmentsof Jamia Hamdard, Delhi from October 2021 to February 2022. Thesample size was 183. PSS was used for the assessment of stress anddepressive symptoms were assessed using BDI.Results: The study findings revealed that more than half of the collegestudents (66%) were found to have a moderate level of perceived stresswhile 29% had low perceived stress and only 5% of the students hadhigh perceived stress. Most of the college students (56%) had minimaldepressive symptoms, 19% had mild depressive symptoms, 12% hadmoderate depressive symptoms, and 13% had severe depressivesymptoms. It was also seen that 95% of college students had unhealthyeating patterns and only 5% had healthy eating patterns. The presentstudy revealed a significant association between eating patterns andperceived stress. There was no statistically significant associationbetween the eating patterns and depressive symptoms.Conclusion: From the above observation, we concluded that a greatnumber of students were following an unhealthy eating pattern and ahealthy eating pattern can reduce the level of perceived stress amongcollege students. How to cite this article:Shankar C, Rani S, Kaushik A. Association ofPerceived Stress and Symptoms of Depressionwith Eating Patterns among Students in aUniversity in Delhi: A Cross-sectional Study.Chettinad Health City Med J. 2023;12(3):35-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/2278.2044.202348