The Impact of Junk Food Consumption on Mental Health among Healthcare Workers: A Narrative Review

Background: This narrative review explored the prevalence of junk food (JF) consumption and its detrimental effects on the health and mental well-being of healthcare workers (HCWs) as well as to assess the obstacles preventing the adoption of healthy eating habits in its workplace. Methods: By searching websites for studies to be enrolled in this review in the period from 2014 to 2024, 81 studies were found on the PubMed website and 33 on other websites, for a total of 114 studies. 68 studies were prepared that did not fit our topic, leaving 46 studies that were classified as follows: 14 studies for HCWs, 8 nursing studies, 18 medical student studies and 6 studies in others. Results: This review emphasizes the prevalence of JFs consumption habits among different HCWs, trends of JFs consumption among both gender of HCWs, barriers to healthy eating habits at the workplace, possible associations among participant's demographics, job nature and JF consumption at work as well as the prevalence of overweight and obesity among HCWs and lastly, impact of JFs on mental health and work outcomes among HCWs were discussed. Conclusion: The evidence from this narrative review has provided enough information about effects of JF consumption on the health and mental well- being of HCWs. Future studies can assess how new strategies to encourage healthier eating among HCWs affect diet quality and more general measures of health and wellbeing