Study of Associations between the Diet Diversity and Degree of Anxiety in Iranian Adolescent Girls, 2017

Background and Objectives: Adolescence is the period of rapid growth, alterations in body composition and psychosocial development. Adolescents, who eat well and participate in daily physical activities, live a healthy life. A healthy lifestyle promotes optimal growth and better performance at school and work and minimizes the risk of nutrient-linked chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to determine dietary diversity, and its relation to anxiety among adolescent high school girls.  Materials & Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study, which was designed based on the update of HEI-2015. The study population included 412 high schoolgirls aged 11–17. Data of diet, sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics were collected. Dietary diversity score (DDS) and anthropometric characteristics of the girls were measured. Furthermore, DASS-42 questionnaire was used to report the adolescents who suffered from anxiety. Relationships between DDS and anxiety were assessed. Results: This study showed that DDS included an inverse correlation with anxiety in adolescents. In students who were healthy, DDS was greater than that in participants with anxiety (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Dietary diversity could be inversely associated with anxiety in adolescence. So that by increasing dietary diversity score, the degree of anxiety was lower. Further prospective investigations are needed to confirm this finding.