Prevalence and correlates of lifestyle behavior, anxiety and depression in Chinese college freshman: A cross-sectional survey.

Abstract Objectives First-year college students had exposure to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors that correlate with a high prevalence of anxiety and depression. Regarding to the modifiable lifestyle behaviors factors, this study investigated the prevalence and correlation of multiple lifestyle behaviors, anxiety and depression in a sample of Chinese first-year college students. Methods Cross-sectional data were extracted from Residents eHealth app of health lifestyle behaviors survey from September to October 2019. Anxiety, depression, eating regular meals, consumption of snacks in-between meals, consumption of fruit, dessert and sugar-sweetened beverages, smoking and secondhand smoke exposure, consuming alcohol, physical activity, sedentary time were assessed by self-report. Socio-demographic including age, gender, education, family income, religion, and health condition were captured. Logistic regression was used to explore the association of multiple lifestyle behaviors, anxiety and depression. Results Totally 1,017 participants were included in the study. The prevalence of anxiety and depression (from mild to severe) were 40.3% and 45.3%, respectively. In multivariable analyses, religion (believe in Buddhism, OR = 2.438, 95%CI: 1.097–5.421; believe in Christian, OR = 5.886, 95%CI: 1.604–21.597), gender (Female, OR = 1.405, 95%CI: 1.001–1.971), secondhand smoke exposure (OR = 1.089, 95%CI: 1.001–1.184), and eating regular meals (OR = 0.513, 95%CI: 0.346–0.759) were associated with anxiety. Family income (OR = 0.732, 95%CI: 0.596–0.898), eating regular meals (OR = 0.641, 95%CI: 0.415–0.990), frequency of breakfast (OR = 0.813, 95%CI: 0.690–0.959), with a chronic disease (OR = 1.902, 95%CI: 1.335–2.712), and consumption of nocturnal snack (OR = 1.337, 95%CI: 1.108–1.612) were associated with depression. Conclusions These results highlighted the need for early lifestyle behavior intervention, especially modifying diet patterns considering the background of religion, health condition, and social-economic status in first-year college students to improve their mental health.