Mediterranean diet adherence, social media use, and anxiety symptoms: an exploratory cross-sectional pilot survey.
5 affiliations
- 1Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
- 2Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzębiec, Poland.
- 3Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
- 4Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
- 5Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Abstract
Background
Anxiety and depressive symptoms are common, and dietary patterns have been proposed as a modifiable influence on them. The majority of the evidence rests on composite adherence indices such as the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), which sums its components as if they all contributed equally and addresses depression more often than anxiety. Whether individual dietary components relate to symptoms independently of the composite index has rarely been tested, and rarely alongside social media use, a further exposure proposed to shape both diet and mood.Methods
An anonymous online survey in English, Spanish, and Russian was completed by 115 adults aged 18 to 65 years with no previous diagnosis of mental illness, comprising a 14-item modified Mediterranean Diet Score (mMEDS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and questions on daily time spent on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X. Four primary hypotheses tested the associations of olive oil intake and red and processed meat intake with each HADS subscale; all other comparisons were exploratory. The Benjamini-Hochberg correction was applied within each family. Effect sizes are reported with bootstrap 95% confidence intervals. The primary comparisons were additionally adjusted for sex, age band, and educational level.Results
All four primary estimates lay in the hypothesized direction. Higher olive oil intake was associated with lower anxiety scores (r = -0.249, 95% CI - 0.448 to -0.050, p = 0.021), and restricted red and processed meat intake was associated with lower anxiety and depression scores after adjustment (β = -2.12, p = 0.021; β = -1.62, p = 0.032). None survived correction for multiple testing. The mMEDS total did not appear to be related to either subscale (ρ = -0.045 and -0.141), while item-level associations differed in direction across food groups.Conclusion
Component-level signals appeared where the composite showed none, which may indicate that summing adherence items can obscure relationships running in opposite directions between foods. For studies using MEDAS-type indices, testing components alongside the total score could be worthwhile. Olive oil quantity and red and processed meat intake may be candidates for confirmatory work.
Related
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- The relationship between smartphone addiction, Mediterranean diet adherence, body composition, and quality of life among university students: a cross-sectional study
- Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Body Composition in Children and Adolescents with Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Study
- Sleep disturbance and its associations with night shift work, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms among urban operation-supporting workers: a cross-sectional study
BibTeX
@article{religa2026mediterranean,
title = {{Mediterranean diet adherence, social media use, and anxiety symptoms: an exploratory cross-sectional pilot survey.}},
author = {Piotr Religa and Michel-Edwar Mickael and Norwin Kubick and Inmaculada Conesa Moreno and Daniel Ferris Garcia and Mariusz Sacharczuk and Atanas G Atanasov and Jarosław Olav Horbańczuk},
journal = {Frontiers in nutrition},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fnut.2026.1883903},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42952525},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Mediterranean diet adherence, social media use, and anxiety symptoms: an exploratory cross-sectional pilot survey.
AU - Piotr Religa
AU - Michel-Edwar Mickael
AU - Norwin Kubick
AU - Inmaculada Conesa Moreno
AU - Daniel Ferris Garcia
AU - Mariusz Sacharczuk
AU - Atanas G Atanasov
AU - Jarosław Olav Horbańczuk
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Frontiers in nutrition
DO - 10.3389/fnut.2026.1883903
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42952525
AB - Background Anxiety and depressive symptoms are common, and dietary patterns have been proposed as a modifiable influence on them. The majority of the evidence rests on composite adherence indices such as the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), which sums its components as if they all contributed equally and addresses depression more often than anxiety. Whether individual dietary components relate to symptoms independently of the composite index has rarely been tested, and rarely alongside social media use, a further exposure proposed to shape both diet and mood.Methods An anonymous online survey in English, Spanish, and Russian was completed by 115 adults aged 18 to 65 years with no previous diagnosis of mental illness, comprising a 14-item modified Mediterranean Diet Score (mMEDS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and questions on daily time spent on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X. Four primary hypotheses tested the associations of olive oil intake and red and processed meat intake with each HADS subscale; all other comparisons were exploratory. The Benjamini-Hochberg correction was applied within each family. Effect sizes are reported with bootstrap 95% confidence intervals. The primary comparisons were additionally adjusted for sex, age band, and educational level.Results All four primary estimates lay in the hypothesized direction. Higher olive oil intake was associated with lower anxiety scores (r = -0.249, 95% CI - 0.448 to -0.050, p = 0.021), and restricted red and processed meat intake was associated with lower anxiety and depression scores after adjustment (β = -2.12, p = 0.021; β = -1.62, p = 0.032). None survived correction for multiple testing. The mMEDS total did not appear to be related to either subscale (ρ = -0.045 and -0.141), while item-level associations differed in direction across food groups.Conclusion Component-level signals appeared where the composite showed none, which may indicate that summing adherence items can obscure relationships running in opposite directions between foods. For studies using MEDAS-type indices, testing components alongside the total score could be worthwhile. Olive oil quantity and red and processed meat intake may be candidates for confirmatory work.
SN - 2296-861X
ER -