The investigation of the effects of Ramadan fasting on the mood state of healthy volunteer persons

Abstract

Introduction: The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of Ramadan fasting on human psychology among healthy volunteer people.Methods: In this cross-sectional type study, the universe of the research is composed of healthy volunteer people who registered at the Kayapınar Peyas family health centre in Diyarbakır and declared they planned to fast at the month of Ramadan in 2017. A questionnaire form including a sociodemographic questionnaire and Turkish version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-42) was formed. The online questionnaire technique was used to obtain the data via e-mail and smartphone. The study was conducted during the summer of 2017. The survey conducted to the same healthy volunteer group one weak before Ramadan (May 22-26) and at the end of Ramadan (June 21-25). SPSS 21.0 statistical package was used in the data analysis. The statistical analyses were considered significant if p<0.05.Results: 73 healthy volunteer subjects with no known health problems and who were not in the risk groups in terms of mental and physical health were included in the statistical evaluation. According to the DASS score, when the pre-Ramadan scores of the samples were compared to the post-Ramadan scores; depression (p=0.001), anxiety (p=0.01) and stress (p =0.002) scores were found to be lower at the end of Ramadan. When compared to the pre-Ramadan scores of the samples and the post-Ramadan scores; anxiety (p< 0.05) prevalence was found to be lower at the end of Ramadan. Conclusion: The results of the current study demonstrated that fasting in the month of Ramadan have been effective in diminishing stress, anxiety, and depression levels.