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The association between carotenoid intake, mental health, and sleep quality among university students

  • Neurology • Original Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

The impact of carotenoid intake on the risk of mental disorders and poor sleep quality is unclear. Thus, we sought to examine the association between carotenoid intake, mental health, and sleep quality among university students.

Methods

A total of 368 healthy university students (181 men, 49%), aged 18 to 43 years, volunteered for this study. Dietary intake, physical activity, sleep quality, mental health, and body mass index (BMI) were evaluated. A multivariable logistic regression analysis test was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

The mean age of the participants was 22.9 ± 3.9 years and mean BMI was 23.1 ± 3.8 kg/m2. The students in the highest quartile of carotenoid intake had a significantly lower risk of poor sleep quality (OR = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.40; P  < 0.001) and depression (OR = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.59; P = 0.001). In the sex-stratified subgroup analysis, the depression risk was significant for men (OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.59; P = 0.007), but not for women. Furthermore, we did not observe any specific relationship between carotenoid intake and the risk of anxiety or stress.

Conclusion

It appears that the students with higher carotenoid intake may have a better quality of sleep and lower risk of depression. More longitudinal and in-depth qualitative and quantitative research, with a longer-term follow-up, is needed to support the veracity of our findings.

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Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (no.397386).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Food Security Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Behnoosh Boozari, Parvane Saneei & Seyed Morteza Safavi

  2. Department of Clinical Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Behnoosh Boozari, Sajjad Moradi & Seyed Morteza Safavi

  3. Medical Biology Research Center, Health Technology Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Fatemeh Heydarpour

  4. Centre for Intelligent Healthcare, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK

    Cain C. T. Clark

  5. Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Shokufeh Nezamoleslami & Parvane Saneei

Authors
  1. Behnoosh Boozari
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  2. Sajjad Moradi
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  3. Fatemeh Heydarpour
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  4. Cain C. T. Clark
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  5. Shokufeh Nezamoleslami
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  6. Parvane Saneei
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  7. Seyed Morteza Safavi
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Contributions

BB, PS, and SMS contributed to conception. SMS, BB, and SM contributed to design. FH contributed to statistical analysis. BB and Sh-N contributed to data collection. BB, SM, and CC contributed to manuscript drafting.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seyed Morteza Safavi.

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Ethics approval

This work was confirmed by the research council and ethical committee of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran (Ethical code, IR.MUI.Research.REC.1397. 245).

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All participants signed written informed consent.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Boozari, B., Moradi, S., Heydarpour, F. et al. The association between carotenoid intake, mental health, and sleep quality among university students. Sleep Breath 26, 829–837 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02420-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02420-1

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