To investigate the assocation of sedentary behavior among college students on psychological health issues, such as depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms, and to analyze the moderating role of takeaway consumption behavior in the context, in order to provide a scientific basis for reducing emotional symptoms among college students.

A stratified cluster sampling method was employed to conduct a questionnaire on 3 427 first-year students of a higher education institution in Hefei of Anhui Province from May to June 2021. The study variables included demographic characteristics, sedentary time, takeaway consumption behavior, and emotional (symptoms depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms). The Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the association between variables, and linear regression analysis was used to analyze the association between takeaway consumption behavior and depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms among college students with sedentary time.

Both sedentary time and takeaway consumption behavior were positively correlated with depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms among college students (r=0.10, 0.10, 0.10; 0.10, 0.11, 0.11, all P < 0.05). The results of linear regression analysis showed that the interaction term between takeaway consumption behavior and sedentary time was positively correlated with symptoms of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms among college students (depression: β=0.04, anxiety: β=0.04, stress: β=0.04, all P < 0.05). The results of the simple slope test demonstrated that regardless of the level of takeaway consumption behavior, sedentary time was positively correlated with the depressive symptoms of college students; compared with low takeaway consumption behavior, high takeaway consumption behavior (β=0.77, P < 0.01) enhanced the association between sedentary time and depressive symptoms among college students. In addition, under the condition of high takeaway consumption behavior, sedentary time was positively correlated with the anxiety and stress symptoms of college students (anxiety: β=0.64; stress: β=0.71, both P < 0.01); while under the condition of low takeaway consumption behavior, sedentary time was not related to the anxiety and stress symptoms of college students (β=0.17, 0.22, both P>0.05).

Sedentary behavior is related to a the emotional symptoms of depressive, anxiety, and stress among college students. Takeaway consumption behavior may exacerbate this impact.