Exploring the Association Between Mental Health and Cooking Practices in Canadian Young Adults: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Home cooking has declined in recent years, with households spending less time preparing meals, cooking less frequently, and eating out more often. This shift occurred alongside an overall rise in mental health concerns. Prior research has found that limited cooking skills and greater reliance on processed foods were associated with poorer mental health in Canadians. These trends raise important questions about the relationship between mental well-being and cooking practices. To address this, the present study explored the associations between symptoms of depression and anxiety and cooking intensity (which is a product of cooking frequency and duration) among Canadian young adults. The inclusion criteria were adults aged 18 to 29 years, residing in Canada, possessing a valid postal code, and being fluent in either English or French. A web-based survey collected demographic data, information on cooking practices, dining-out practices, and mental health symptoms. The Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) assessed anxiety and depression symptoms, respectively. Ordinal logistic regression model was used to assess the association between mental health symptoms and cooking intensity, while controlling for sociodemographic and eating-out variables. The analytical sample consisted of 1,310 participants, predominantly female (70.5%), students (96.9%), non-racialised (49.7%), and high school graduates (75.4%). Most (88.2%) participants reported cooking regularly. The mean PHQ-9 score was 9.9 (SD = 6.4), classified as mild severity, with 30.5% experiencing mild symptoms and 7.1% experiencing severe symptoms. The mean GAD-7 score was 9.2 (SD = 5.7), indicating a moderate level of severity, with 28.0% experiencing minimal symptoms and 16.5% experiencing severe symptoms. Regression results were significant for PHQ-9 (R² = 0.008, P = 0.01) but not for GAD-7 (R² = 0.005, P = 0.09). Similarly, in fitted models, cooking intensity showed a weak but significant association with PHQ-9 scores (β = 0.01, P = 0.03), but not with GAD-7 (β = 0.01, P = 0.06). Depression symptoms explained only a small portion of the variability in cooking intensity, indicating that other factors also play a role. Thus, future research should focus on exploring other psychological variables, such as self-efficacy and motivation, to better understand the influence of mental health factors on cooking practices.