Background: Emerging evidence has shown that night-eating syndrome is correlated to depressive symptoms. However, these studies were mainly small-scale investigations.
Purpose: This study aimed to examine the association of night-eating syndrome with depressive symptoms among college students using a large-scale sample.
Methods: A cross-sectional study, which was a part of the Fitness Improvement Tactics in Youth Project, was conducted in 2017. The current study included 3278 college freshmen from Shenyang, China. They completed self-administered questionnaires and provided their sociodemographic and lifestyle information. Night-eating syndrome was assessed using the night-eating questionnaire (NEQ). Depressive symptoms were measured using the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS).
Results: Of participants, 5.4% had night-eating syndrome (NEQ score ≥ 30), and 21.3% had depressive symptoms (SDS score ≥ 53). Prevalence of night-eating syndrome was higher in male than female students (p  = 0.006). Logistic regression analysis indicated that students with night-eating syndrome had a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms than those without the syndrome after adjusting covariates (odds ratios [95% CI]: 3.28 [2.40, 4.48], p  < 0.001). Consistent results were found when night-eating syndrome was defined as NEQ score ≥ 25. In addition, analysis of covariance showed a significant association between NEQ quartiles and SDS score (mean [95% CI]: Q1, 44.4 [43.8, 45.0]; Q2, 43.4 [42.7, 44.0]; Q3, 44.4 [43.7, 45.1]; Q4, 47.5 [46.9, 48.2], p  < 0.001 for linear and quadratic trend).
Conclusion: This study showed an association between night-eating syndrome and depressive symptoms among Chinese college freshmen.
Keywords: night eating, eating behaviors, depressive symptoms, college students, youth