Title:

Perceived Stress Impact on Diet Quality in College Students Before and During COVID

Objective: to examine the relationship between perceived stress and dietary quality among college students before and during the pandemic. It is hypothesized that increased stress experienced during the pandemic is associated with poorer diet quality. Methods: Data were collected between 2019-21 at a Northeastern, public university through the College Health and Nutrition Assessment Survey (CHANAS), an ongoing cross-sectional study. Stress was self-reported in an online questionnaire using a validated 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and categorized into low (<14), moderate (14-26), and high stress (>26). Food and nutrient intake were obtained from a 3-day food record and analyzed via online nutrient software (Diet and Wellness+). Diet quality (DQ) was scored using a modified Dietary Quality Index International (mDQI-I) from 0-100; scores were categorized as low (<56), moderate (56-75), and high DQ (>75). Differences in DQ between PSS groups were evaluated using ANCOVA with gender, smoking, alcohol consumption, anxiety/depression medication, Pell Grant, and living quarter as covariates. Results: Most (87.4%) of the final sample (n= 543) had low DQ score; 12.1% had moderate DQ score, and 0.003% had high DQ score. Out of 100 points for DQ score, students mean score is 41 ± 11.9. The mean DQ score did not differ between 2019-20 and 2020-21 (42.3±12.3 vs. 39.2±11.3, P=0.9), respectively. Students during the pandemic with high stress had a lower DQ score than students before the pandemic with high stress (36.9±7.6 vs 39.8±12.4). No differences in DQ between PSS group from 2019-21 were found. Conclusions: Perceived stress was not associated with diet quality before or during the pandemic among our sample of college students. More research is needed to determine and examine the relationship between stressful events and diet quality in young adults. Funding sources: New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project 1010738.

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