The burden of psychological distress and unhealthy dietary behaviours among 222,401 school-going adolescents from 61 countries

Abstract

We aimed to calculate the sex-specific prevalence of psychological distress and unhealthy eating habits among adolescents across countries and regions, and to explore their potential associations. We used data from the Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS) for 61 countries. Psychological distress was defined based on the existence of ≥ 2 factors from the following: loneliness, anxiety, suicide ideation, suicide planning, and suicide attempt. Four unhealthy dietary behaviours were examined: inadequate fruit intake, inadequate vegetable intake, daily consumption of soft drinks, and weekly fast-food consumption. We used random-effects meta-analysis to estimate the overall and regional pooled prevalence. Mixed-effect multilevel logistic regressions were used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of unhealthy dietary behaviours in relation to psychological distress. Among 222,401 school-going adolescents (53.3% girls), the prevalence of psychological distress was 17.9%, with girls reporting higher than boys (20.8% vs. 14.9%). Adolescents in the African region reported the highest prevalence (22.5%), while those in the South-East Asia region reported the lowest (11.3%). The prevalence of inadequate fruit intake, inadequate vegetable intake, daily soft drink consumption, and weekly fast-food consumption was 37.0%, 28.5%, 50.0%, and 57.4% respectively. Psychological distress was associated with inadequate fruit intake (pooled aOR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.17–1.23), inadequate vegetable intake (pooled OR = 1.19, 1.16–1.22), daily consumption of soft drinks (pooled aOR = 1.14, 1.12–1.17), and weekly consumption of fast food (pooled aOR = 1.12, 1.09–1.15). Our findings indicate a substantial variance in the burden of psychological distress and unhealthy dietary behaviours across different regions. Adolescents experiencing psychological distress were more likely to have unhealthy dietary habits.