Effect of life style on mental health

(Velten, Bieda, Scholten, Wannemüller, & Margraf, 2018) In the article ‘Lifestyle choices and mental health’, the scholar, conducted a longitudinal study on Germany and Chinese students on the relationship between a multivariable of lifestyle-related choices and mental health. The study significantly satisfied all the relevant requirements of a scientific study. It confirmed that there is a relationship between the choices of lifestyle such as abstinence from smoking, maintaining a healthy BMI, vegetarian diet and engaging in social activities with the sample’s mental health. The journal article reflects underlying pedagogic pursuit on the relationship between lifestyle, interpreted in terms of proper nutrition, and mental health. The researchers discussed the issue succinctly and with evaluative discretion, eliminating a shortage and scarcity of relevant research sources that have characterized the discipline.

Nevertheless, there were problems with rounding up an acceptable definition of lifestyle choices which resulted in the inclusion of contentious variables in the list. The researchers were also not able to identify the thin continuum between choices, and compulsion as well as an addiction that characterize some of the lifestyle variables. (Cornah, 2018) The treatment of a variable like obesity and smoking as lifestyle choices clearly runs contrary to studies that have proven that there is a genetic as well as medical connotation associated and related to addictive behavior. Essentially, obesity itself does not always stem from choices and hence it was equally elusive for the researchers to interpret these variables with the rationalization of choice. The importance of not merely interpreting the lifestyle variable as choices is critical to the discipline of nutrition.

This was useful in helping arrive at the large sample size in China, but the comparative size realized in German showed that the study no longer fit into the lenses of longitudinal studies. In a longitudinal study, it is recommended that the sample size be relatively equal. The fact that the age of Chinese and Germany participants showed a great deal of variance is also another problem that could impair on the research findings. There is no doubt that lifestyle factors affect people differently based on age and gender, a factor that was not well realized in the study. It is a critical concern that in nutritional studies, age is a very important factor as a physical and mental activity that utilizes energy produced from foods varies relatively with age.

The best way of understanding mental health is through observation from a certified therapist or psychologist. The inclusion of mental health variables in the research instrument was hence not very tenable and could be termed as engaging in a defeatist course. Review of findings There is also a critical concern that arises from the findings. The study indicated that there is a correlation between taking a strict vegetarian diet and mental health problems (MHP). The underlying relationship between the two variables sharply contrasts the fact that vegetarian diets have often led to better physical health. However, over time, the chemical change from alcoholism is disruptive and leads to poor mental health. There is also a concern as well with the analysis of information and the lack of appreciation with the limitations that emanates from the correlational analysis.

Often than not, correlation coefficients are used to imply an association, but researchers tend to use them to indicate causation (Bryman, 2012). Statistically, association and relationships do not imply causation. The problem with measuring causation is a prime concern of nutritional studies which have resulted in the need for more subject- researcher relationships. This finding supports mainstream research that identifies maintaining a healthy body mass index as a prerequisite for the overall health of the person as it leads to a person living free of diseases that impairs the brain such as depression. (Oddy, Trapp, Ambrosini, Black, Huang, & Mori, 2018) There is a higher correlation between obesity and depressive behavior. In addition, the study also concluded that there is a strong relationship between smoking and MHP.

Of special importance is that across the cultures, all participants showed a strong positive relationship between smoking and MHP. The issue of smoking, a nicotine-ridden depressant and its effect on the brain has been researched for eons (Cornah, 2018). In addition, the variables that were utilized for the study are also interrelated and hence it would have been advisable if the researcher presented results from multiple correlation analysis. This is because an individual with a middle BMI who smoked regularly may show lower levels of positive mental health that a person with obesity who smoked less. This would not lead the research anywhere. In general, while the research successfully delivered invaluable results on the various variables, it was largely overarching, far-fetched and hence cannot be substituted for nutritional studies fiat since its findings cannot be replicated as a diagnostic model.