Healthy Lifestyle Components and Mental Health among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Background: Mental health issues among undergraduates have gained attention in recent years due to their rising incidence. Healthy lifestyle components like sleep quality, diet, physical activity, substance abuse, and social support may affect mental health. Thus, recognizing the most important components of a healthy lifestyle allows relevant parties to execute suitable treatments. Objective: This study aims to identify predictors of a healthy lifestyle on mental health. A cross-sectional study was carried out on a randomly selected sample of 180 undergraduate students aged 18 to 30. Significant predictors of healthy lifestyle components were identified using AHLQ and DASS 21 instruments. Methods: This research is quantitative research with a nested case-control study design, using electronic medical record (EMR) data from the Central Java Provincial Hospital in 2023. The variables in this study were gender, age, education level, employment status, marital status, health insurance status, BMI, DM diet, duration of DM, hypertension, other diseases, current blood glucose, and HbA1c. The analysis used was univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis (logistic regression). Results: The findings indicate a significant relationship between a healthy diet and mental health, and a healthy diet contributes 25% of variances, while 29% of mental health variance was attributed to the combination of a healthy diet and PA. Furthermore, 31% of mental health variance is attributed to sleep quality variables, and a combination of healthy diet, PA, sleep quality, and substance abuse contributes to 34% of mental health variance. Conclusion: This study provides insights to stakeholders in terms of incorporating healthy lifestyle components in mental health intervention strategies for undergraduate students. It was concluded that such interventions should focus on promoting a healthy diet since it is the most significant measure of good mental health.