"Taste modification" strategy for prevention and control of hypertension in India: need for robust clinical trials.

Hypertension is an important modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Among normotensives, excessive dietary salt elevates the blood pressure and thereby increases the risk of CVD events. Despite such solid evidence, there is no effective approach to address excessive salt intake in India. Instead of just encouraging patients to lower their salt intake, we must provide an alternative technique by fostering an environment that facilitates this behaviour change. In this Viewpoint, we propose 'Taste Modification' strategy, i.e., a salt-reduction technique in which individuals are informed that adding spices/herbs to meals will reduce their salt intake. We hypothesise that a gradual reduction in salt intake can aid in the treatment of hypertension over time. The goal is to progressively substitute salt with spices for effective salt reduction. However, the 'Taste Modification' strategy must be first validated using multicentric clinical trials.

Retraction notice to "Sudip Bhattacharya. Strengthening public health surveillance through blockchain technology" [AIMS Public Health, 2019, 6(3): 326-333].

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.3934/publichealth.2019.3.326.].

Graphene surface plasmon sensor for ultra-low-level SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Precisely detecting the ultra-low-level severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is crucial. The detection mechanism must be sensitive, low-cost, portable, fast, and easy to operate to tackle coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). This work proposes a sensor exploiting graphene surface plasmon resonance to detect SARS-CoV-2. The graphene layer functionalized with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) antibodies will help efficient adsorption of the SARS-CoV-2. In addition to the graphene layer, ultra-thin layers of novel two-dimensional materials tungsten disulfide (WS2), potassium niobate (KNbO3), and black phosphorus (BP) or blue phosphorus (BlueP) used in the proposed sensor will increase the light absorption to detect an ultra-low SARS-CoV-2 concentration. The analysis presented in this work shows that the proposed sensor will detect SARS-CoV-2 as small as ∼1 fM. The proposed sensor also offers a minimum sensitivity of 201 degrees/RIU, a figure-of-merit of 140 RIU-1, and enhanced binding kinetics of the SARS-CoV-2 to the sensor surface.

Racial and ethnic differences in major depressive episode, severe role impairment, and mental health service utilization in U.S. adolescents.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine racial and ethnic variations in national trends, past-year prevalence, determinants of major depressive episode (MDE), MDE-related role impairment and mental health (MH) services utilization in U.S. adolescents. METHODS: Data was extracted from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from 2010 to 2018. A total of 137,671 nationally representative adolescents aged 12-17 were included in the study. Weighted temporal trends in the past-year prevalence of MDE, and MDE with severe role impairment were estimated both overall and by race and ethnicity. Weighted multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to assess racial/ethnic differences in determinants of MDE, MDE-related severe role impairment, and MH services utilization after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, family structure, substance use, activity participation, and problem-solving group engagement. RESULTS: The prevalence of MDE and MDE with severe role impairment among U.S. adolescents has steadily increased, while MDE-related health services utilization remained low from 2010 to 2018. Racial and ethnic minority adolescents were more likely to experience an MDE, but less likely to use MH services compared to their White counterparts. Participating in school, family, community, or faith-based activities was significantly associated with lower MDE incidence. Problem-solving group engagement was associated with MH services utilization (all p-values < 0.05). CONCLUSION: High prevalence of depression and low MH service utilization among U.S. adolescents remains a public health issue. Moreover, racial/ethnic disparities persist in MH and service utilization outcomes. Future research must investigate the burden and predictors of mental illness, and the factors influencing MH services utilization in diverse adolescent populations.

Dietary salt consumption pattern as an antecedent risk factor for hypertension: Status, vision, and future recommendations.

Multiple salt reduction strategies have been devised from time to time, addressing the issues of hypertension without considering the other essential factors, like the variability of salt sensitivity from the person to person. In this paper, we discuss how high salt consumption is one modifiable risk factor associated with hypertension among Indians, and there needs to be updated cut-off values. A thorough literature search on salt consumption articles on well-known search engines like Cochrane Library, PubMed, Google Scholar and Embase electronic database revealed a paucity of data in this field for India. Several studies revealed that the mean salt intake among the Indian populations ranges between 5.22 and 42.30 g/day. Moreover, among other risk factors analysed, salt intake (≥ 5 gm/day) was significantly associated with the development of hypertension. Although the need to address reduced salt intake for primordial prevention of hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in India is well acknowledged by the key stakeholders, social and cultural beliefs, unorganized food retail sector and lack of existing food policing are some of the potential barriers that affect the progress and employment of such effective strategies. Some multinational food companies have already research is warranted to evaluate the contextual barriers and facilitators and to adopt effective strategies to improve awareness among consumers, to encourage the endorsement of salt reduction by the food industry, and to facilitate the adoption of countrywide consumer-friendly food labelling. We concluded that salt consumption is high in India, although this assessment has been done primarily by subjective methods in India. People all across are recommended the same cut-off value of dietary salt consumption regardless of the diversity in dietary patterns and environmental conditions across the country. There is an urgent need to address these issues through evidence-based population research.

Global research on syndemics: a meta-knowledge analysis (2001-2020).

BACKGROUND: Syndemics or synergies of cooccurring epidemics are widely studied across health and social sciences in recent years. METHODS: We conducted a meta-knowledge analysis of articles published between 2001 to 2020 in this growing field of academic scholarship. RESULTS: We found a total of 830 articles authored by 3025 authors, mostly from high-income countries. Publications on syndemics are gradually increasing since 2003, with rapid development in 2013. Each article was cited more than 15 times on average, and most (n = 604) articles were original studies. Syndemics research focused on several areas, including HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, mental health, gender minority stressors, racism, violence, chronic physical and mental disorders, food insecurity, social determinants of health, and coronavirus disease 2019. Moreover, biopsychosocial interactions between multiple health problems were studied across medical, anthropological, public health, and other disciplines of science. CONCLUSIONS: The limited yet rapidly evolving literature on syndemics informs transdisciplinary interests to understand complex coexisting health challenges in the context of systematic exclusion and structural violence in vulnerable populations. The findings also suggest applications of syndemic theory to evaluate clinical and public health problems, examine the socioecological dynamics of factors influencing health and wellbeing, and use the insights to alleviate health inequities in the intersections of synergistic epidemics and persistent contextual challenges for population health.

Psychosocial Challenges in Palliative Care: Bridging the Gaps Using Digital Health.

Psychosocial health is a major palliative care concern globally. Patients and caregivers engaged in palliative care may experience deteriorated mental and social health conditions. Global evidence informs a high burden of depression, anxiety, psychological distress and other mental health problems among the palliative care populations. Those challenges aggravate the preexisting palliative care issues, such as lack of access and suboptimal quality of care. Palliative caregiving, both in the institutional and community settings, should be strengthened, incorporating psychosocial support for the patients and their caregivers. The recent advancements in digital health technologies have shown promising impacts in facilitating health communication, decision-making and delivering psychosocial interventions using digital devices and platforms. Adopting evidence-based interventions can help the users to access mental health resources and communicate with each other to promote shared decision-making and management of health problems. Health-care organisations and systems may explore opportunities to advance psychosocial care using digital technologies. Leveraging advanced technologies in palliative caregiving may require multifaceted research exploring potential barriers and opportunities at the user, institutional and systems levels. Nonetheless, palliative care policies and health systems measures should be strengthened to develop and implement digital support systems that may improve psychosocial health and overall palliative care outcome.

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among Chinese College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study.

A longitudinal assessment of the prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and risk factors is indispensable for further prevention and/or treatment. The longitudinal web-based survey enrolled 1,164 college students in China. Measured at two time points (February and August 2020), PTSS, demographic information, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), resilience and self-compassion information were collected to explicate the prevalence and predictors of PTSS concurrently and over time. Results showed that although PTSS generally declined throughout the 6 months after the outbreak of COVID-19, the prevalence remained relatively high. Resilience and self-compassion negatively predicted PTSS concurrently and longitudinally. While subjective family socioeconomic status (SES) and ACEs at Wave 1 did not predict PTSS under COVID-19 at Wave 1, but both significantly predicted PTSS at Wave 2. Findings implicate potential targets for detecting and intervening on symptoms of trauma in this vulnerable population.

Associations of 24-Hour Movement Behavior with Depressive Symptoms and Anxiety in Children: Cross-Sectional Findings from a Chinese Sample.

This study examined the associations between adherence to 24-hour movement behavior guidelines (24-HMB) and the mental-health-related outcomes of depressive symptoms and anxiety in Chinese children. Data on movement behavior from 5357 children (4th and 5th grades), including physical activity, recreational screen time and sleep, were self-reported using the Health Behavior School-Aged Children Survey. Depressive symptoms and anxiety were self-reported using the Chinese version of the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, respectively. Depressive symptoms and anxiety were treated as categorical variables. Only 3.2% of the participants met physical activity, screen time, and sleep 24-HMB guidelines. Ordinal logistic regressions showed that, compared with participants who met the 24-HMB guidelines, participants who met none (odds ratio (OR) = 2.62, 95% CI: 1.76-3.90) or any one of the guidelines (OR = 1.88, 95% CI: 1.27-2.77) had higher odds of depressive symptoms. Similarly, there were higher odds of anxiety in participants who met none (OR = 2.32, 95% CI: 1.45-3.70) or any one of the recommendations (OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.03-2.57) compared with participants who met all the 24-HMB guidelines. Meeting the 24-HMB guidelines is associated with better mental-health-related outcomes in Chinese children. Because of the low prevalence of Chinese children meeting the 24-HMB recommendations, the present findings highlight the need to encourage children to regularly engage in physical activity, decrease their time spent sitting, and improve their sleep patterns.

The current state of mental healthcare in Bangladesh: part 2 - setting priorities.

This is the second of a two-part profile on mental healthcare in Bangladesh. It describes the state of mental health research in the country and presents a set of priorities for addressing improvements to the fundamental gaps in mental healthcare highlighted in part 1. Focus on building infrastructure for public mental health facilities, training skilled mental health professionals, adequate distribution of financial resources and addressing stigma are all priorities that will contribute to significantly improving mental healthcare in Bangladesh.

The current state of mental healthcare in Bangladesh: part 1 - an updated country profile.

Mental health is a significant factor for a sound and productive life; nevertheless, mental disorders do not often receive adequate research attention and are not addressed as a serious public health issue in countries such as Bangladesh. Part 1 of this two-part profile describes the current situation of mental health in Bangladesh in its wider sociocultural context, outlining existing policies and highlighting mental illness as a neglected healthcare problem in the country using a narrative synthesis method. The prevalence of mental disorders is very high and augmented in nature among different population groups in Bangladesh. A lack of public mental health facilities, scarcity of skilled mental health professionals, insufficient financial resource distribution, inadequately stewarded mental health policies and stigma contribute to making current mental healthcare significantly inadequate in Bangladesh. The country has few community care facilities for psychiatric patients. Furthermore, the current mental health expenditure by the Bangladeshi government is only 0.44% of the total health budget. Less than 0.11% of the population has access to free essential psychotropic medications.

Mental health problems among Chinese adolescents during the COVID-19: The importance of nutrition and physical activity / Problemas de salud mental en adolescentes chinos durante el COVID-19: importancia de la nutrición y la actividad física

Mental health problems are common among adolescents and greatly influenced by stressful events. This study sought to assess the prevalence and correlates of insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese adolescents during the COVID-19. Method: Cross-sectional study (N = 1,794 adolescents, mean age = 15.26) was conducted in May 2020. An online survey was used to collect socio-demographic data, COVID-related fear (COVID-fear), nutrition, physical activity (PA) level and the symptoms of insomnia, depression and anxiety. Results: The prevalence of insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms was 37.80%, 48.20% and 36.70%, respectively, among Chinese adolescents during the pandemic. Generalized linear models revealed that female, left behind children, and students with greater COVID-fear tended to report symptoms of insomnia, depression and anxiety concurrently. After adjusting for socio-demographic factors and COVID-fear, better nutritional status and moderately active PA were both associated with lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms, while highly active PA was associated with lower levels of insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to psychological health among adolescents while combating COVID-19. To promote adolescents’ mental health, educators should help adolescents develop a healthy lifestyle with balanced diet and regular exercise. (AU)

Los problemas de salud mental son comunes en adolescentes y están influenciados por eventos estresantes. Se evaluó prevalencia y correlatos de síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad en adolescentes chinos durante el COVID-19. Método: En mayo de 2020 se realizó un estudio transversal (N = 1.794 adolescentes, edad media = 15,26) mediante una encuesta en línea para recopilar datos sociodemográficos, miedo relacionado con COVID-19, nutrición, actividad física (AF) y síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad. Resultados: La prevalencia de síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad fue del 37,80%, 48,20% y 36,70%, respectivamente. Modelos lineales generalizados revelaron que mujeres, niños abandonados y estudiantes con más miedo al COVID-19 tendían a informar síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad simultaneamente. Después de ajustar los factores sociodemográficos y el miedo al COVID-19, mejor estado nutricional y AF moderadamente activa se asociaron con niveles más bajos de síntomas de depresión y ansiedad, mientras que AF muy activa se asoció con niveles más bajos de insomnio, síntomas depresivos y de ansiedad. Conclusiones: Se debe prestar más atención a la salud psicológica de los adolescentes mientras se combate el COVID-19. Para promover su salud mental, los educadores deben ayudarles a desarrollar un estilo de vida saludable con una dieta equilibrada y ejercicio regular. (AU)

Prevalence of Mental Disorders in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: To synthesize the prevalence of mental and substance use disorders in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of the World Health Organization. Methods: The literature search was conducted across several databases in two phases. First, we searched for systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses published before 2014, reporting prevalence estimates for mental disorders in the EMR. Then, we identified new primary cross-sectional or longitudinal studies published between 2014 and 2020. Studies were included if they had a sample size of ≥ 450 and were conducted among the general adult population. Current, period and lifetime prevalence estimates for each disorder were pooled using random-effects meta-analyses, and subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were conducted. Findings: Prevalence estimates were extracted from 54 cross-sectional studies across 15 countries within the EMR. Pooled analyses of current, period and lifetime prevalence showed the highest prevalence for depression (14.8%, 95% confidence interval, CI: 10.7-20.1%), followed by generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (10.4%, 95% CI: 7.1-14.7%), post-traumatic stress disorder (7.2%, 95% CI: 2.9-16.6%), substance use (4.0%, 95% CI: 3.1-5.2%), obsessive compulsive disorder (2.8%, 95% CI: 1.6-4.9%), phobic disorders (1.8%, 95% CI: 1.1-2.8%), panic disorders (1.1%, 95% CI: 0.6-2.2%), bipolar disorders (0.7%, 95% CI: 0.3-1.6%), and psychosis (0.5%, 95% CI: 0.3-0.9%). Populations exposed to adverse events had higher prevalence of mental disorders than the general population. Period and lifetime prevalence showed little difference across mental disorders. More pronounced differences in prevalence were seen for depression and GAD, specifically between current and lifetime prevalence (depression: current prevalence 20.5% (95% CI: 14.9-27.4%), vs. lifetime prevalence: 4.2% (95%CI: 1.8-9.6%); GAD: current prevalence 10.3% (95% CI: 6.1-17.0), vs. lifetime prevalence: 4.5% (95% CI: 2.4-8.3%). Differences between current and lifetime prevalence of mental disorders may be due to the use of different screening instruments and thresholds being applied. Conclusion: The prevalence of mental and substance use disorders in the EMR is high. Despite substantial inter-survey heterogeneity, our estimates align with previous global and regional data on mental disorders. Our meta-review provides new evidence on the burden of mental health problems in the EMR. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020187388.

Role of Public Health Ethics for Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence Technologies.

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have shown promising success in optimizing health-care processes and improvising health services research and practice leading to better health outcomes. However, the role of public health ethics in the era of AI is not widely evaluated. This article aims to describe the responsible approach to AI design, development, and use from a public health perspective. This responsible approach should focus on the collective well-being of humankind and incorporate ethical principles and societal values. Such approaches are important because AI concerns and impacts the health and well-being of all of us collectively. Rather than limiting such discourses at the individual level, ethical considerations regarding AI systems should be analyzed enlarge, considering the complex socio-technological reality around the world.

Changes in Levels and Determinants of Maternal Health Service Utilization in Ethiopia: Comparative Analysis of Two Rounds Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys.

BACKGROUND: Antenatal care (ANC), delivery by skilled birth attendants, and postnatal care (PNC) are critical components of maternal health services for reducing maternal mortality. The study aimed to compare the utilization of maternal health services in the two most recent rounds of Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys (EDHS) and identify the factors influencing the utilization of these services using the 2016 EDHS. METHODS: Two rounds of EDHS data in 2011 and 2016 were used to estimate the proportion of women who had ANC, delivered by skilled birth attendants, and had a postnatal checkup and other characteristics of the surveyed population. The most recent round of data-the 2016 EDHS-was used to examine the socio-cultural and reproductive health factors associated with the three maternal health services utilization. Chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses with adjusted Odds Ratios (AOR) were conducted using Stata 15.0. RESULTS: The use of ANC services and skilled birth attendants increased significantly between 2011 and 2016 EDHS, utilization of ANC services increased from 34.0 to 65.5%, and use of skilled birth attendants increased from 11.7 to 35.9%, respectively. The use of postnatal care decreased from 9.3 to 6.9%. Utilization of maternal health service was significantly associated with urban residence, Protestant religion, Oromo ethnicity, more education, more household wealth, and less parity. Furthermore, women who had ANC visits during pregnancy were more likely to subsequently use skilled birth attendants (AOR 5.5, p < 0.001) and PNC (AOR 2.9, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The study highlighted the inequalities in the utilization of maternal health services between rural and urban areas, and the need of addressing the social, economic, and physical barriers that prevent women from using these services. Further, programs should be targeted at promoting the use of professional birth and postnatal services in Ethiopia.

Optimizing the impact of health and related programmes / policies to address the issue of Childhood Obesity in India----A narrative review.

Non-communicable diseases are already acknowledged as a double burden, and now childhood obesity is putting extra strain on our health system. The current paper aimed to analyze the ongoing health and related programmes/policies in India, and we discussed the existing opportunities in the programmes to address the issue of childhood obesity in India. We searched the "MEDLINE," "PsycINFO," "Scopus," "Web of Science," and "Google Scholar" databases using the following keywords: ("overweight") and ("obesity"), ("childhood obesity"), ("nutritional programmes in India"), ("Health policies in India"), ("malnourished children in India") in combination with each other and in truncated form. All the relevant articles and policy documents (MOHFW, INDIA) available in the public domain were included to support the argument for this narrative review. We found that we have programme gaps like guidelines issues by Food Safety Standards Authority of India to tackle childhood obesity and it has not been strictly implemented due to multiple reasons. School health programme has an opportunity to address the issue of childhood obesity, but at the ground level the outcomes are not very promising. The National Nutrition Mission have only focussed on undernutrition and anemia problem, ignoring the overweight/childhood obesity. Primary care physicians are key players in the treatment of childhood obesity, yet rates of obesity management in the primary care setting are low. National Programme for prevention & Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & stroke is dealing with health promotion and prevention, early diagnosis, and management of all ages, except children. Diet provided in Integrated Child Development Scheme is calculated based on calories, not by the quality which is a concern to us. The breastfeeding promotion programme named Mothers Absolute Affection programme has not been implemented with letter and spirit. Other than health programmes, we assume that Ministry of Urban Planning, Foreign Direct Investment policy, Advertisement Council of India and many more sector/policy/programme are indirectly responsible for the increasing burden of childhood obesity in India. Lack of awareness and wrong perception also responsible for the development of childhood obesity. We have multiple National Health Programmes and Policies to address the childhood malnutrition, but are focussing the undernutrition component only, ignoring overnutrition problem in the children, which is emerging as quadruple burden to our health system. Appropriate actions and inclusion of suggestions provided in this study for the improvement of the programmes at the practical level needs to be considered by the policy makers to halt the ever-rising trend of childhood obesity and primary care physicians should play a leadership role.

Prevalence of anxiety and depression in South Asia during COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted biopsychosocial health and wellbeing globally. Pre-pandemic studies suggest a high prevalence of common mental disorders, including anxiety and depression in South Asian countries, which may aggravate during this pandemic. This systematic meta-analytic review was conducted to estimate the pooled prevalence of anxiety and depression in South Asian countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: We systematically searched for cross-sectional studies on eight major bibliographic databases and additional sources up to October 12, 2020, that reported the prevalence of anxiety or depression in any of the eight South Asian countries. A random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled proportion of anxiety and depression. RESULTS: A total of 35 studies representing 41,402 participants were included in this review. The pooled prevalence of anxiety in 31 studies with a pooled sample of 28,877 was 41.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 34.7-48.1, I 2 = 99.18%). Moreover, the pooled prevalence of depression was 34.1% (95% CI: 28.9-39.4, I 2 = 99%) among 37,437 participants in 28 studies. Among the South Asian countries, India had a higher number of studies, whereas Bangladesh and Pakistan had a higher pooled prevalence of anxiety and depression. No studies were identified from Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Maldives. Studies in this review had high heterogeneity, high publication bias confirmed by Egger's test, and varying prevalence rates across sub-groups. CONCLUSION: South Asian countries have high prevalence rates of anxiety and depression, suggesting a heavy psychosocial burden during this pandemic. Clinical and public mental health interventions should be prioritized alongside improving the social determinants of mental health in these countries. Lastly, a low number of studies with high heterogeneity requires further research exploring the psychosocial epidemiology during COVID-19, which may inform better mental health policymaking and practice in South Asia.

Mental health problems among Chinese adolescents during the COVID-19: The importance of nutrition and physical activity.

Mental health problems are common among adolescents and greatly influenced by stressful events. This study sought to assess the prevalence and correlates of insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese adolescents during the COVID-19. METHOD: Cross-sectional study (N = 1,794 adolescents, mean age = 15.26) was conducted in May 2020. An online survey was used to collect socio-demographic data, COVID-related fear (COVID-fear), nutrition, physical activity (PA) level and the symptoms of insomnia, depression and anxiety. RESULTS: The prevalence of insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms was 37.80%, 48.20% and 36.70%, respectively, among Chinese adolescents during the pandemic. Generalized linear models revealed that female, left behind children, and students with greater COVID-fear tended to report symptoms of insomnia, depression and anxiety concurrently. After adjusting for socio-demographic factors and COVID-fear, better nutritional status and moderately active PA were both associated with lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms, while highly active PA was associated with lower levels of insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to psychological health among adolescents while combating COVID-19. To promote adolescents' mental health, educators should help adolescents develop a healthy lifestyle with balanced diet and regular exercise.

Los problemas de salud mental son comunes en adolescentes y están influenciados por eventos estresantes. Se evaluó prevalencia y correlatos de síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad en adolescentes chinos durante el COVID-19. Método: En mayo de 2020 se realizó un estudio transversal (N = 1.794 adolescentes, edad media = 15,26) mediante una encuesta en línea para recopilar datos sociodemográficos, miedo relacionado con COVID-19, nutrición, actividad física (AF) y síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad. Resultados: La prevalencia de síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad fue del 37,80%, 48,20% y 36,70%, respectivamente. Modelos lineales generalizados revelaron que mujeres, niños abandonados y estudiantes con más miedo al COVID-19 tendían a informar síntomas de insomnio, depresión y ansiedad simultaneamente. Después de ajustar los factores sociodemográficos y el miedo al COVID-19, mejor estado nutricional y AF moderadamente activa se asociaron con niveles más bajos de síntomas de depresión y ansiedad, mientras que AF muy activa se asoció con niveles más bajos de insomnio, síntomas depresivos y de ansiedad. Conclusiones: Se debe prestar más atención a la salud psicológica de los adolescentes mientras se combate el COVID-19. Para promover su salud mental, los educadores deben ayudarles a desarrollar un estilo de vida saludable con una dieta equilibrada y ejercicio regular.