Patterns of unhealthy lifestyle and their associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese young adults: A latent class analysis

There is little evidence on the association between patterns of unhealthy lifestyle and mental health among young adults. This study included a total of 28,978 young adults aged 18 to 44 years old in Guangdong province in south China, which was conducted from September to December in 2022. We used latent class analysis to classify the patterns of unhealthy lifestyle among young adults and used multiple logistic regression to explore their associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms. The weighted prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms were 28.0 % and 19.5 %, respectively. The cumulative effect of unhealthy lifestyles on depressive and anxiety symptoms was significant. Five patterns of unhealthy lifestyle were classified. Compared to the relatively healthy lifestyle class, the class with more unhealthy lifestyles (OR = 6.54, 95 % CI: 5.70–7.51) and insufficient sleep (OR = 6.16, 95 % CI: 4.92–7.70) had higher risk for depressive and anxiety symptoms. Meaningfully, having adequate mental health literacy could reduce the risk of depressive and anxiety symptoms from unhealthy lifestyle by half. The cross-section design study limited causal inferences, and the self-report information may lead to recall bias. Unhealthy lifestyles have a negative impact on depressive and anxiety symptoms through independent, cumulative and combined effects, and they could be interrelated. Unhealthy lifestyle patterns differed in younger population by socio-demographic characteristics and mental health literacy. Health-care professionals and policymakers may provide programs to intervene multiple unhealthy lifestyles and improve mental health literacy by integrating healthy lifestyle education to promote youngers' mental health.