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Eating breakfast, fruit and vegetable intake and their relation with happiness in college students

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Abstract

Purpose

Nutrition plays a major role in physical and mental health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationships between happiness and fruit and vegetable intake as well as eating breakfast in students.

Methods

In this cross-sectional web-based study, all students of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in Iran who attended course classes were invited to participate in the study. Five hundred forty-one students filled out the web-based questionnaire which included questions related to measurement of happiness, breakfast, fruit and vegetable consumption and socio-economic and demographic information. Analysis of covariance was used to assess the relationship between happiness and breakfast, fruit and vegetable consumption by adjustments for covariates.

Results

Measure of happiness was positively associated with eating breakfast, number of meals eaten daily and the amount of fruit and vegetable consumption (P values were <0.001, 0.008, 0.02, and 0.045 respectively). Students who ate breakfast every day, more than 8 servings of fruit and vegetables daily, and had 3 meals in addition to 1–2 snacks per day had the highest happiness score.

Conclusion

Healthier behavior pattern was associated with higher happiness scores among medical students.

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Acknowledgments

This article is a main part of M.Sc thesis supported by Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. We would like to thank Deputy of Research and Technology of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. We also wish to thank all of the students for their valuable collaboration with this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Health, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran

    Azadeh Lesani & Maryam Javadi

  2. Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Asghar Mohammadpoorasl

  3. Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, 14711, Iran

    Asghar Mohammadpoorasl

  4. Children Growth Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran

    Maryam Javadi

  5. Department of Public Health, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran

    Jabiz Modaresi Esfeh

  6. Clinical Psychiatry Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Ali Fakhari

Authors
  1. Azadeh Lesani
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  3. Maryam Javadi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Asghar Mohammadpoorasl.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests.

Ethical approval

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences (QUMS) approved the study protocol and the related questionnaire.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study.

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Lesani, A., Mohammadpoorasl, A., Javadi, M. et al. Eating breakfast, fruit and vegetable intake and their relation with happiness in college students. Eat Weight Disord 21, 645–651 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-016-0261-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-016-0261-0

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