Abstract

While it is known that depression and anxiety are associated with poor eating habits, little is known about relationships between these common psychological disorders, somatisation and poor eating habits. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of depression, anxiety and somatisation on eating habits across gender in university populations. University students (N = 167) participated in the study by completing an internet based survey. No specific gender differences were found for depression, anxiety or eating habits scores. However, females had significantly higher somatisation scores. Higher somatisation scores were significantly positively associated with reported depression, reported anxiety and poorer eating habits. Regression analyses showed that, after controlling for demographics including gender, somatisation and depression were predictive of poorer eating habits. Since poor eating habits can influence wellbeing as well as performance, future research should focus on exploring somatisation among university students and within the general population.