Association between commensality with depression and suicidal ideation of Korean adults: the sixth and seventh Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2013, 2015, 2017

Mental illness affects 10% of the world’s population in modern society. Approximately 350 million people suffer from depression globally [1]. The causes of depression are various, including physiological factors, social psychological factors, environmental variation, and role changes as a family member or worker [2]. Depression deteriorates quality of life while leading to social problems (e.g., loss of support network or employment), increasing suicide risk [3, 4]. Indeed, suicide is a major clinical symptom of depression, highly correlated with suicidal ideation, and considerable effort has been devoted to examining the link between suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts [5].

South Korea currently has the highest suicide rate in the world at 25.6 per 100,000 people, with depression prevalence at 5.0% (men 3.0%, women 5.9%) (Statistics Korea, 2016). Mental-health problems are likely linked to a rapidly changing society with various demands at different ages, including marriage, childbirth, child rearing, employment, and retirement [6, 7]. Stress from sociological factors such as generational differences also contribute to mental health. As a coping mechanism, people may alter their behaviors, including eating habits. More research is needed on behavioral responses to mental stressors as they are expected to become increasingly common [8].

Commensality, or the act of eating meals together, has become an important health issue because eating alone appears to be associated with poorer mental health outcomes [9‐14]. Although traditional customs emphasized commensality [15], people in modern societies are increasingly eating alone for various reasons. In particular, some people who dine alone have reported that they associate commensality with negative feelings because they do not have the freedom to eat what they like and are uncomfortable eating in the presence of others [16]. However, eating alone can exclude an individual from many positive effects of communal eating, including socializing and disclosure [17, 18].

The percentage of single-person households in South Korea has increased rapidly from 4.2% in 1975 to 28.6% in 2017, and this rise is projected to continue. For many Koreans, this recent decrease in number of family members occurs concurrently with eating alone involuntarily, leading to loneliness and social isolation [19]. Increasingly, work-related or personal problems are also causing modern young people to move their homes without settling down. Such changes mean the lack of opportunities to share their lives, including meals, with family or other close social partners, affecting physical health, cognition, emotional state, and behavior [20‐22]. Most Korean adults either skip breakfast or eat the meal away from home. Additionally, some of them involuntarily spend lunchtime and dinnertime alone; the lack of meal-related social activities narrows their relationships and appears to generate depressive feelings [23]. Other studies in Korea likewise found that people who ate lunch or dinner alone were more depressed than those who ate commensally; these associations even stronger when eating alone was involuntary (caused by external situations) [8, 9, 11, 24]. Therefore, in this study, we examined recent data from South Korea to determine whether the association between commensality and mental health differs among subgroups and is affected by socio-economic factors such as age, household size, geographic regions, and household income level. Our findings should have important implications for developing appropriate measures to address depression and suicide.

Of the study population, 2283 of 5854 men (39%) ate all three meals commensally, while 2724 of 8271 women (32.9%) had two meals commensally, as the highest percentage in their groups. Commensality was differentially associated with depression and suicidal ideation depending on socioeconomic or health characteristics (p < 0.05; Tables 1 and 2). Both mental health variables in men and women was significantly associated with household size, generation, household income, education, occupation, chronic illness, smoking status, and drinking status.

Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of commensality for social interactions and intimate relationships [28]. Specifically, eating alone, without the benefits of commensality such as socializing and disclosure, was related to a greater likelihood of depression and suicidal ideation [29, 30]. Depression and suicidal ideation were analyzed together, because the former is highly correlated with suicidality (including suicidal ideation, suicidal plans, and suicidal attempts) [9, 30]. Our study focused on the benefits of commensality for promoting mental health. Numerous studies have linked not only physical health but also mental health to self-destructive behaviors such as suicide, suggesting the need to prevent these behaviors through an integrated approach [30‐32]. We added to the existing literature by analyzing the strength of the relationship between commensality and mental health for various subgroups, using detailed socio-economic data on Korean adults.

The results showed that both men and women who ate meals less frequently with others were more likely to be depressed. This result differs from that of previous studies, in which commensality had a strong association with depression only among men [33]. Also, we found that commensality was significantly associated with depression and suicidal ideation for the 20–29 year old age group, in contrast with previous studies that only found these associations among older adults [24, 34‐36]. For early adults, commensality provides emotional stability and positively affects mental health [6, 7]. Increased pressure in the academic, marriage, and employment realms has forced young adults to delay getting married and live alone for a longer period, which causes them to have individualistic values and decreases their social exchanges with others [37].

This study also demonstrated that lower socio-economic levels [24, 35, 38, 39], including lower income levels and education attainment, and poorer physical health, such as the present of a chronic disease [40] or smoking [14], have a higher association between eating alone and depression and suicidal ideation.

Similar to research that found that commensality with family members has a positive effect on mental health [24, 33], this study also found that people in multi-person households who ate meals alone were more likely to be depressed and have suicidal ideation. Owing to the small sample size and the fact that the proportion of single-person households was only 10%, the relationship between commensality and mental health was insignificant among single-person households. Because the population of single-person households is increasing in Korea [41], further research is needed to explore the effect of eating alone for those who live alone.

Because many unmarried and young men have moved to cities and bereaved and old women have stayed in rural communities in Korea, there are residential and cultural differences in mental health. Prior research has shown that those living in rural areas with low income levels tended to have increased levels of depression [42]. This study found that men are more likely to be depressed if they are living in a smaller population area in a rural area, followed by cities and metropolises. Moreover, the odds of suicidal ideation was higher in cities, followed by rural areas and metropolises. Women were, on the other hand, more likely to be depressed and higher suicidal ideation in cities unlike previous studies showed that women in rural areas were significantly more depressed [37, 42].

A major limitation of this study is its cross-sectional nature. The lack of longitudinal data meant we cannot comment on the causality of commensality; we do not know if eating together directly improved mental health, or if depression and suicidal ideation conversely caused participants to seek out company at mealtimes. In particular, we did not exclude or reclassify individuals who were previously diagnosed with depression, because we could not determine whether depression influences the likelihood of commensality or vice versa. We also did not account for the possibility that individuals may want to eat alone, and that such a choice may be positive depending on their own preferences and health. Given the wide range of factors affecting dietary changes in modern society, future studies should carefully separate the various causes of diet-related behaviors to clarify any links between commensality and mental health. And almost 20% participants in the datasets were excluded as missing values, non-specified or no answers in the self-reported health survey, particularly about diagnosis of depression. Considering the possibility of losing those with depression did not desire to answer, the results should be carefully interpreted.

Nevertheless, our study has important strengths. We considered important covariates (e.g., socioeconomic factors, chronic conditions) in our analysis of commensality, identifying statistically significant associations between eating habits and mental health that differed depending on household size and residence type (urban vs. rural). Notably, we were able to compare adults living alone but still ate commensally with those who lived with others and ate commensally. This analysis allowed us to focus specifically on the mental-health effects of eating alone that were distinct from cohabitation. Our findings should present directions for further research on the link between households and depression or suicide. In addition, through our inclusion of young and middle-aged adults, we expanded the applicability of the results compared with previous studies that focused only on the elderly. Finally, we examined social structure characteristics (e.g., income level) that may modulate the association between eating alone and depression/suicidal ideation in adults. Understanding these interactions could provide better policy directions for addressing mental health problems in a population.

In conclusion, this study provided evidence that commensality was important for mental health. We demonstrated the need to consider individual characteristics and social networks when examining this link. Thus, future studies should include these factors when exploring further questions on commensality, for instance whether an individual desires eating together or wishes to avoid it, and whether the causes underlying solitary eating differ in single vs. multi-person households. Overall, given that our data suggest social isolation from eating alone could deteriorate both physical and mental health, social workers, educators and also policy developers to be aware of the importance of eating together and develop and to promote programs that encourage commensality. Our results are valuable as a basic resource for panel data analysis or a nested case-control study to identify sequential and casual relationships between commensality and mental health.