Effectiveness of Honey Supplementation to Overcome Depressive Symptoms in University Students: An Evidence-based Quasi-experimental Study from Indonesia.

BACKGROUND: Depression is a mental health disorder that affects many people, including college students. It can significantly impact a person's quality of life, making concentrating, studying, and performing daily activities difficult. Some studies have shown that honey may have antidepressant properties, but its effectiveness as a treatment for depression in college students has not been fully explored. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of daily honey supplementation in reducing depressive symptoms among university students over 10 weeks, compared with a control condition. METHODS: This is a quasi-experimental study. Students (18-25 years) were purposively recruited from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar, Indonesia. A total of 46 students were enrolled and non-randomly allocated to the honey intervention (n=22) or control (n=24). DASS-21 outcomes were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Exclusion criteria included allergy to honey, current antidepressant medication, comorbid psychiatric conditions, and non-compliance during intervention. The intervention group received 2 teaspoons (5 ml) of honey orally once daily for 10 weeks, administered under researcher supervision. Depression levels were measured before and after the intervention using the validated DASS-21 scale. Data collection also included a Semi-Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (SQ-FFQ) and a 24-hour recall to control dietary intake. Assessed at baseline and the end of the study using the paired t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: The results showed a significant reduction in depression rates in the honey intervention group compared to the control group. This is evidenced by a decrease in the depression score from 7.22 to 4.45 and a p-value = 0.002. The intervention group showed improvement, with "normal" classification increasing from 81.8% to 95.5%, and no cases of mild depression observed post-intervention. CONCLUSION: Honey treatment showed promising effectiveness as a complementary approach in alleviating depression among college students. Future studies with larger randomized samples are recommended to confirm these findings.