None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Recent research has revealed concerning rates of anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and other mental health issues among university students. For these students, successful engagement in student life and learning activities can be significantly disrupted by fluctuations in thinking, concentration and mood, leading to low academic performance and difficulties in building social connections with their peers. Furthermore, chronic stress can lead to the disturbances in immune, neuroendocrine and neurotrophin systems. Walnuts contain several neuro-protective compounds like vitamin E, folate, melatonin, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids and some studies have shown their beneficial effects on mental health in humans. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether daily walnut consumption can lower stress related biomarkers and improve mental health and general well-being in university students. We hypothesize that daily consumption of walnuts by university students may relieve stress-related mood disturbances and improve their general well-being during stressful periods of study. This will be the first study to investigate the effects of walnuts on mental health and biochemical markers in young adults attending university. If walnuts have a positive effect, they could be recommended as a nutritional healthy supplement to alleviate stress related mood disturbances and improve quality of life in young adults attending university. Participants will be randomly divided into two groups. One group will be required to consume 56g of walnuts per day for 16 weeks and the other group will be asked to maintain a nut-free diet during the same period. Changes in mood, sleeping habits, quality of life, and psychological well-being will be clinically assessed in each participant at baseline, during examination preparation and after examinations (overall, 3 assessments). All participants will also be asked to provide small blood and saliva samples, which will be used to measure changes in stress biomarkers over the 16-week period.
Interventions
For this cohort study, we will recruit 80-90 undergraduate students from UniSA through student email lists and will also promote this study through other university sources. Participants will be randomly divided into two groups. One group will be required to consume half a cup of walnuts (about 50g) per day for 16 weeks and the other group will be asked to maintain a nut-free diet during the same period. The 16-week period will cover 12 weeks of study, 2 weeks of examinations and 2 weeks after e
For this cohort study, we will recruit 80-90 undergraduate students from UniSA through student email lists and will also promote this study through other university sources. Participants will be randomly divided into two groups. One group will be required to consume half a cup of walnuts (about 50g) per day for 16 weeks and the other group will be asked to maintain a nut-free diet during the same period. The 16-week period will cover 12 weeks of study, 2 weeks of examinations and 2 weeks after examinations. All participants will undergo 3 assessments where, at each, they will provide a blood sample, a saliva sample and a faecal sample which will be used to measure stress related biomarkers (cortisol), BDNF and the gut microbiota respectively using commercially available biochemical assays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Faecal samples (collected by patients with a home test kit) will be sent to the Australian Genome Research Facility Ltd, Melbourne, Australia for sequencing and analyses of gut microbiota. All participants will also have their mood, sleeping habits, quality of life, physical activity, and psychological well-being assessed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS), Sleep Evaluation, Assessing Quality of Life (AQoL-8D), Active Australia Survey (AAS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHC-SF), and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS21) questionnaires. The assessments will be performed at baseline (beginning of the study period), during examinations and after examinations to investigate whether daily walnut consumption can lower stress related biomarkers and improve general well-being and mental health in university students. Changes over time between the control and intervention group will be assessed using a linear mixed effects model with treatment as a between subject factor and time as the repeated measurement. Intervention adherence will be assessed in all participants through the use of weekly checklists which we will provide. These checklists will allow participants to indicate on which days of each week they have adhered to the intervention for the duration of the study. This will allow us to keep track of any non-compliance. Each participant's checklists will be assessed at each visit and any deviation from the intervention will be recorded and advice will be given to the participant in order to maintain intervention adherence.
Sponsors
AsProf. Larisa Bobrovskaya
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 35 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Only undergraduate participants between 18-35 years of age will be selected Both male and female participants will be selected Participants should be equally willing to be allocated to either of the two groups The above key inclusion criteria was implemented following recruitment of 37 participants (first cohort) and will be applied to the second cohort.
Exclusion criteria
• Existing walnut allergy • Consumption of fish oil (>2 capsules/day) and/or nuts (>2 serves (60g) /week) • Use of medications for depression, anxiety or any other neurological or psychiatric conditions • Oral or pulmonary steroid use in the past 3 months • Night shift workers • Pregnancy • Antibiotic use or probiotic use in the last month (due to microbiome alterations)
Outcome results
None listed