Dietary taurine intake, nutrients intake, dietary habits and life stress by depression in Korean female college students: a case-control study

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary taurine intake, nutrients intake, dietary habits and life stress by depression in Korean female college students. Methods In this study, research data were collected in March 2009 and 65 patients with depression and 65 controls without depression participated. The CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression) scale was used for depression measure and controls were matched for age. A 3-day recall method was used for dietary assessment (2 weekdays and 1 weekend day). Results Average height, weight and body mass index (BMI) were 161.3±0.5cm, 55.3±1.0kg and 21.2±0.4kg/m2 for depression patients and those of control group were 161.4±0.7cm, 53.1±0.8kg and 20.3±0.2kg/m2, respectively. Average dietary taurine intakes of depression patients and control group were 89.1 and 88.0 mg/day, respectively. There was no significant difference in dietary taurine intake between depression patients and control group. The average intakes of vitamin A (p Conclusions These results show that depression patients have poor dietary habits and unbalanced nutrition status. Also depression patients have higher life stress score. Therefore, continuous nutrition education and counselling for good dietary habits and balanced nutrition status are needed to prevent depression in Korean college students.