Associação entre ansiedade, estresse percebido e qualidade da dieta em estudantes de graduação: uma revisão narrativa

Abstract

During their academic years, undergraduate students experience a variety of situations that trigger higher levels of stress and anxiety, which impact their eating habits and, consequently, the quality of their diet. For undergraduate students, in particular, food choices are key factors that affect the quality of their diet, since the mental distress triggered by this period can lead to a greater desire to consume high-calorie and sugary foods compared to fresher foods. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between anxiety, perceived stress, and diet quality in undergraduate students. Methodology: A narrative review was conducted to address the relationship between diet quality, anxiety, and/or perceived stress in undergraduate students, considering publications published between 2018 and 2024, in all languages, in the databases Embase, Medline/PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus eWeb ofScience. Results: An association was observed between higher levels of stress, anxiety, and poor or very poor diet quality in undergraduate students. A total of 16 studies were analyzed, which associated anxiety and stress with worse results in diet quality, either directly, through diet quality scales, or indirectly, through characteristics associated with poor or very poor diet quality. Conclusion: Undergraduates students generally adhere to poor quality diets, with low intake of natural and minimally processed foods and high consumption of ultra-processed foods rich in sugars, fats and additives. Therefore, it is important that more studies be conducted to observe the relationship between anxiety, perceived stress, and diet quality in undergraduate students, in order to assist in obtaining information and real data for the construction of public policies on nutritional education and psychological support for undergraduate students.