(P31-047-23) Effect of Nutrition Interventions With Mental Health Components on the Nutrition Status in Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Objectives: To conduct a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of nutrition interventions with mental health components on the nutrition knowledge and diet quality of adolescents.

Methods: We searched the PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and CENTRAL databases up to April 25^th, 2022. Eligible intervention studies included nutrition intervention with mental health components in adolescents aged 10 to 19 and an assessment of nutrition knowledge or diet quality changes. The risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane risk-of-bias 2 tool for randomized trials and cluster randomized trials and the ROBINS-I tool for non-randomized controlled trials depending on the study design. The systematic review protocol was registered in PROSPERO.

Results: We identified 19 eligible studies, including 9 randomized controlled trials, 4 non-randomized controlled trials, and 6 trials. Changes in dietary intakes were assessed in 16 studies, changes in nutrition knowledge in 2 studies, and both changes in dietary patterns and nutrition knowledge in 1 study. Studies found an increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables (n=4), and healthier dietary patterns (n=3), a decrease in fast- or junk-foods (n=3), sweets (n=1), sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) (n=2), snacking (n=2), total calories (n=1), whereas others found no changes for the consumption of fruits and vegetables (n=3), fast- or junk-foods (n=1), SSB (n=1), or total calories (n=3). Significant improvements in emotional or restrained eating behaviors were observed in 2 studies, but not in 2 other studies. Improvement in nutrition knowledge was found in all studies with this outcome. Furthermore, in two trials, the only difference between the intervention and the control group was the addition of mental health components, which resulted in a significantly greater improvement in nutrition knowledge and a reduction in SSB and total energy intake.

Conclusions: There is some evidence for the beneficial effects of adolescent nutrition interventions with mental health components on nutrition knowledge and diet quality; however, the strength of the evidence is limited by the heterogeneity of study designs and outcomes. The results show a potential for further research with more homogenous study designs and measurement tools.

Funding Sources: No funding