COVID rewired student life. Using the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory plus questions on support from close ones, nutrition attention and university/specialisation, we examined how anxiety related to social support and dietary habits in studying men and women.
Elevated scores
State anxiety ran above average (means about 46–48) even when students reported social support. Trait anxiety was also elevated (means about 49–50). Nutrition habits and chosen education type associated with trait anxiety. Regression showed chosen factors only partly explained anxiety — mental health care needs more than one lever.
Sex and campus
Anxiety differed by gender and university context. That is a reminder for student services: one campus-wide poster about “eating well and calling mum” will not equalise risk.
Tone that matters
Elevated STAI in a pandemic is understandable, not a character flaw. Support and diet are associated predictors, not blame targets.
State and trait anxiety both matter for daily function; the pandemic pushed both above reference comfort zones in this student sample. Support from close ones did not zero the state score — which is psychologically unsurprising and programmatically important: peer support is necessary, not sufficient.
Nutrition attention as a covariate of trait anxiety invites campus services to integrate diet counselling with mental-health triage without moralising food. University and specialisation differences warn against one-size messaging across faculties.
Read alongside the Journal of Men’s Health companion focused on male students: same historical moment, complementary slices.
State and trait anxiety both matter for daily function; the pandemic pushed both above reference comfort zones in this student sample. Support from close ones did not zero the state score — which is psychologically unsurprising and programmatically important: peer support is necessary, not sufficient.
Nutrition attention as a covariate of trait anxiety invites campus services to integrate diet counselling with mental-health triage without moralising food. University and specialisation differences warn against one-size messaging across faculties.
Read alongside the Journal of Men’s Health companion focused on male students: same historical moment, complementary slices.
Where this sits in the lab
Biokineticum’s public notes exist so practitioners can reach the DOI without drowning in jargon — and so athletes, teachers and clinicians see that combat-sport science also publishes on prisons, faith, fair play, sauna physiology and disability policy. Soft topics still deserve hard methods: sample sizes, instruments, effect directions and explicit limits.
If you teach, treat or coach from these findings, copy the reference list into your syllabus, open the full text, and write down what you will measure next week. That is the only CTA that always fits.
Reading notes
Psychosocial and public-health papers describe associations in defined samples — not moral verdicts about individuals. We keep the language descriptive, avoid stigma, and point you to the DOI for methods and limits.
If the topic touches your clinic, classroom or programme design, treat this post as a map to the paper, not a substitute for it.
References
- Ortenburger D, Mosler D, Pavlova I, Wąsik J. Social Support and Dietary Habits as Anxiety Level Predictors of Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021. 18(16):8785. doi:10.3390/ijerph18168785
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