Association between the Inflammatory Potential of Diet and Stress among Female College Students

Alfreeh, Leenah; Abulmeaty, Mahmoud M. A.; Abudawood, Manal; Aljaser, Feda; Shivappa, Nitin; Hebert, James R.; Almuammar, May; Al-Sheikh, Yazeed; Aljuraiban, Ghadeer S.

doi:10.3390/nu12082389

Open AccessArticle

Association between the Inflammatory Potential of Diet and Stress among Female College Students

by

Leenah Alfreeh

¹,

Mahmoud M. A. Abulmeaty

^1,2

,

Manal Abudawood

^3,4,

Feda Aljaser

^3,4,

Nitin Shivappa

^5,6,

James R. Hebert

^5,6

,

May Almuammar

¹,

Yazeed Al-Sheikh

^3,4 and

Ghadeer S. Aljuraiban

^1,*

¹

Department of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia

²

Medical Physiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44519, Egypt

³

Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia

⁴

Chair of Medical and Molecular Genetics Research, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia

⁵

Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA

⁶

Cancer Prevention and Control Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Nutrients 2020, 12(8), 2389; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082389

Submission received: 29 June 2020 / Revised: 4 August 2020 / Accepted: 6 August 2020 / Published: 10 August 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eating Habits and Health among College and University Students)

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Abstract

A pro-inflammatory diet may have an adverse influence on stress and inflammatory biomarker levels among college students. The dietary inflammatory index (DII^®) is a tool used to assess the inflammatory potential of a diet. However, evidence for the association between DII and stress is limited. We examined the association between energy-adjusted DII (E-DII^TM), high sensitivity-C-reactive protein [hs-CRP], and stress among female college students. This cross-sectional study included 401 randomly selected female students, aged 19–35 years. Data collection included blood, anthropometric measurements, a healthy-history questionnaire, the perceived stress scale (PSS-10), the Saudi food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and E-DII. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the association between FFQ-derived E-DII score, hs-CRP, and PSS. A higher E-DII score per 1SD (1.8) was associated with a 2.4-times higher PSS score (95% CI: 1.8, 3.1). Higher hs-CRP per 1SD (3.3 mg/L) was associated with a 0.9 (95% CI: 0.7–1.1) times higher PSS score, independent of lifestyle and dietary factors. Our findings indicate that pro-inflammatory diets were highly prevalent among Saudi college students and were associated with higher stress levels. Consideration of the role of stress and focusing on anti-inflammatory foods may be key for healthier dietary habits.

Keywords: stress; inflammation; dietary inflammatory index; college students; hs-CRP; PSS

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MDPI and ACS Style

Alfreeh, L.; Abulmeaty, M.M.A.; Abudawood, M.; Aljaser, F.; Shivappa, N.; Hebert, J.R.; Almuammar, M.; Al-Sheikh, Y.; Aljuraiban, G.S. Association between the Inflammatory Potential of Diet and Stress among Female College Students. Nutrients 2020, 12, 2389. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082389

AMA Style

Alfreeh L, Abulmeaty MMA, Abudawood M, Aljaser F, Shivappa N, Hebert JR, Almuammar M, Al-Sheikh Y, Aljuraiban GS. Association between the Inflammatory Potential of Diet and Stress among Female College Students. Nutrients. 2020; 12(8):2389. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082389

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alfreeh, Leenah, Mahmoud M. A. Abulmeaty, Manal Abudawood, Feda Aljaser, Nitin Shivappa, James R. Hebert, May Almuammar, Yazeed Al-Sheikh, and Ghadeer S. Aljuraiban. 2020. "Association between the Inflammatory Potential of Diet and Stress among Female College Students" Nutrients 12, no. 8: 2389. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082389

APA Style

Alfreeh, L., Abulmeaty, M. M. A., Abudawood, M., Aljaser, F., Shivappa, N., Hebert, J. R., Almuammar, M., Al-Sheikh, Y., & Aljuraiban, G. S. (2020). Association between the Inflammatory Potential of Diet and Stress among Female College Students. Nutrients, 12(8), 2389. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082389

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Association between the Inflammatory Potential of Diet and Stress among Female College Students

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