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The impact of 12 modifiable lifestyle behaviours on depressive and anxiety symptoms in middle adolescence: prospective analyses of the Canadian longitudinal COMPASS study

Abstract

Background:

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours are becoming increasingly common and might contribute to the growing burden of mental disorders in adolescence. We examined the associations between a comprehensive set of lifestyle behaviours and depression and anxiety in middle adolescents.

Methods:

School-based survey responses were collected from 24,274 Canadian high school students at baseline and 1-year follow-up (average age 14.8 and 15.8 years, respectively). Using linear mixed-effects models, we examined prospective associations of adherence to recommendations for vegetables and fruit, grains, milk and alternatives, meat and alternatives, sugar-sweetened beverages [SSB], physical activity, screen time, sleep, and no use of tobacco, e-cigarettes, cannabis, and binge drinking at baseline with the depressive and anxiety symptoms (measured by CESD-R-10 and GAD-7 scales, respectively) at follow-up.

Results:

Adherence to recommendations was low overall, particularly for vegetables and fruit (3.9%), grains (4.5%), and screen time (4.9%). Students adhering to individual recommendations, particularly for meat and alternatives, SSB, screen time, sleep, and no cannabis use, at baseline had lower CESD-R-10 and GAD-7 scores at follow-up. Adhering to every additional recommendation was associated with lower CESD-R-10 (β=-0.15, 95% CI -0.18, -0.11) and GAD-7 scores (β=-0.10, 95% CI -0.14, -0.07) at follow-up. Assuming cumulative impact, this might translate into 7.2- and 4.8-point lower CESD-R-10 and GAD-7 scores, respectively, among students adhering to 12 vs. 0 recommendations over four years of high school.

Conclusions:

The results highlight the preventive potential of population-based approaches promoting healthy lifestyle behaviours, particularly those with the lowest prevalence, as a strategy to improve mental health in adolescence.

Supplementary Information:

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12966-023-01436-y.

Article type: Research Article

Keywords: Adolescence, Youth, Lifestyle behaviours, Mental health, Depressive symptoms, Anxiety symptoms

Authors: Julia Dabravolskaj ⚬, Paul J. Veugelers ⚬, Angelica Amores ⚬, Scott T. Leatherdale ⚬, Karen A. Patte ⚬, Katerina Maximova ⚬

Affiliations: grid.17089.370000 0001 2190 316XEdmonton Clinic Health Academy, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, 11405 87 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9 Canada; grid.46078.3d0000 0000 8644 1405School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON Canada; grid.411793.90000 0004 1936 9318Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON Canada; grid.415502.7MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON Canada; grid.17063.330000 0001 2157 2938Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada

License: © The Author(s) 2023 CC BY 4.0 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Article links: DOI: 10.1186/s12966-023-01436-y  |  PubMed: 37069643  |  PMC: PMC10107579

Relevance: Moderate: mentioned 3+ times in text

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