Lifestyle choices and mental health: a representative population survey

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Abstract

Background

Identifying healthy lifestyle behaviours that promote psychological wellbeing is crucial to preventing mental disorders. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the individual and combined associations between different aspects of everyday life and mental health within a representative community sample in Germany.

Method

The study was conducted in 2012/2013 and included 7,937 participants representative of the German population. Lifestyle factors were assessed via self-report and included frequency of physical and mental activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, body mass index as well as circadian and social regularity. Outcome variables were depression, anxiety, stress and satisfaction with life.

Results

All lifestyle factors were associated with the mental health outcomes. Better mental health was linked to higher frequency of physical and mental activity, moderate alcohol consumption (i.e. not increased or no alcohol consumption), non-smoking, a body mass index within the range of normal to overweight (i.e. not underweight or obese) and a regular life rhythm. The more healthy lifestyle choices an individual makes, the higher life satisfaction and lower psychological distress he or she tends to have.

Conclusions

The current study underlines the importance of healthy lifestyle choices in respect to psychological wellbeing.

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Most cited references 35

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Dose response between physical activity and risk of coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis.

Jacob Sattelmair, Jeremy Pertman, Eric Ding … (2011)

No reviews have quantified the specific amounts of physical activity required for lower risks of coronary heart disease when assessing the dose-response relation. Instead, previous reviews have used qualitative estimates such as low, moderate, and high physical activity. We performed an aggregate data meta-analysis of epidemiological studies investigating physical activity and primary prevention of CHD. We included prospective cohort studies published in English since 1995. After reviewing 3194 abstracts, we included 33 studies. We used random-effects generalized least squares spline models for trend estimation to derive pooled dose-response estimates. Among the 33 studies, 9 allowed quantitative estimates of leisure-time physical activity. Individuals who engaged in the equivalent of 150 min/wk of moderate-intensity leisure-time physical activity (minimum amount, 2008 U.S. federal guidelines) had a 14% lower coronary heart disease risk (relative risk, 0.86; 95% confidence interval, 0.77 to 0.96) compared with those reporting no leisure-time physical activity. Those engaging in the equivalent of 300 min/wk of moderate-intensity leisure-time physical activity (2008 U.S. federal guidelines for additional benefits) had a 20% (relative risk, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.74 to 0.88) lower risk. At higher levels of physical activity, relative risks were modestly lower. People who were physically active at levels lower than the minimum recommended amount also had significantly lower risk of coronary heart disease. There was a significant interaction by sex (P=0.03); the association was stronger among women than men. These findings provide quantitative data supporting US physical activity guidelines that stipulate that "some physical activity is better than none" and "additional benefits occur with more physical activity."

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Fruit and vegetable consumption and stroke: meta-analysis of cohort studies.

Feng He, Caryl Nowson, Graham MacGregor (2006)

Increased consumption of fruit and vegetables has been shown to be associated with a reduced risk of stroke in most epidemiological studies, although the extent of the association is uncertain. We quantitatively assessed the relation between fruit and vegetable intake and incidence of stroke in a meta-analysis of cohort studies. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and bibliographies of retrieved articles. Studies were included if they reported relative risks and corresponding 95% CIs of stroke with respect to frequency of fruit and vegetable intake. Eight studies, consisting of nine independent cohorts, met the inclusion criteria. These groups included 257,551 individuals (4917 stroke events) with an average follow-up of 13 years. Compared with individuals who had less than three servings of fruit and vegetables per day, the pooled relative risk of stroke was 0.89 (95% CI 0.83-0.97) for those with three to five servings per day, and 0.74 (0.69-0.79) for those with more than five servings per day. Subgroup analyses showed that fruit and vegetables had a significant protective effect on both ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke. Increased fruit and vegetable intake in the range commonly consumed is associated with a reduced risk of stroke. Our results provide strong support for the recommendations to consume more than five servings of fruit and vegetables per day, which is likely to cause a major reduction in strokes.

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How might circadian rhythms control mood? Let me count the ways...

Colleen A. McClung (2013)

Mood disorders are serious diseases that affect a large portion of the population. There have been many hypotheses put forth over the years to explain the development of major depression, bipolar disorder, and other mood disorders. These hypotheses include disruptions in monoamine transmission, hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis function, immune function, neurogenesis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuropeptide signaling (to name a few). Nearly all people suffering from mood disorders have significant disruptions in circadian rhythms and the sleep/wake cycle. In fact, altered sleep patterns are one of the major diagnostic criteria for these disorders. Moreover, environmental disruptions to circadian rhythms, including shift work, travel across time zones, and irregular social schedules, tend to precipitate or exacerbate mood-related episodes. Recent studies have found that molecular clocks are found throughout the brain and body where they participate in the regulation of most physiological processes, including those thought to be involved in mood regulation. This review will summarize recent data that implicate the circadian system as a vital regulator of a variety of systems that are thought to play a role in the development of mood disorders. Copyright © 2013 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Julia Velten: julia.velten@rub.de

Kristen L Lavallee: kristen.lavallee@unibas.ch

Saskia Scholten: saskia.scholten@rub.de

Andrea Hans Meyer: andrea.meyer@unibas.ch

Xiao-Chi Zhang: xiaochi.zhang@rub.de

Silvia Schneider: silvia.schneider@rub.de

Jürgen Margraf: juergen.margraf@rub.de

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Psychol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Psychol

Title: BMC Psychology

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2050-7283

Publication date (Electronic): 23 December 2014

Publication date PMC-release: 23 December 2014

Publication date Collection: 2014

Volume: 2

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: 58

Affiliations

[ ]Faculty of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Massenbergstrasse 9-13, D-44787 Bochum, Germany

[ ]Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Article

Publisher ID: 55

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-014-0055-y

PMC ID: 4304169

PubMed ID: 25628891

SO-VID: f25e1c0e-c9ab-4ba5-9f63-88905d148db0

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. 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.

History

Date received : 14 August 2014

Date accepted : 9 December 2014

Custom metadata

Keywords: lifestyle,mental health,depression,anxiety,physical activity,smoking,alcohol,obesity

Data availability:

Keywords: lifestyle, mental health, depression, anxiety, physical activity, smoking, alcohol, obesity

Lifestyle choices and mental health: a representative population survey

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Stigmatisation of mental illnesses

Most cited references 35

Dose response between physical activity and risk of coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis.

Fruit and vegetable consumption and stroke: meta-analysis of cohort studies.

How might circadian rhythms control mood? Let me count the ways...

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