Diet Quality and Mental Health Amongst Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

BackgroundPoor diet quality has been found to be prevalent in people with mental illness [71] and even contribute to mental illness [71]. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the relationship between diet quality, mental health problems, socioeconomic variables, physical activity level, and body mass index amongst acute psychiatric inpatients.MethodThe study sample were 100 adult inpatients. Tools administered were Eating Habit Questionnaires (Dana Farber Institute) and the KIDMed index to assess food compliance in accordance with a Mediterranean diet. The Index marks all individuals as either having an “unhealthy score” or “healthy score”. The study utilized a descriptive correlation research design.ResultsThe results showed that 75% of the patients displayed an unhealthy score as per the KIDMed index. The findings displayed an inverse relationship of BMI and the KIDMed score. There was a significant positive correlation between the level of education and the KIDMed score. There is a positive correlation towards increased consumption of sugar in schizophrenic patients. There was no statistical significance between age, gender, income and physical activity with regards to the KIDMed score.Conclusionpsychiatric inpatients display unhealthy eating habits which is likely both an effect of and a contributing factor to the various mental illnesses. Prospective interventional randomized controlled studies are necessary for clarification of cause-effect relationships.

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