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Trajectories of mental distress and quality of life during Ramadan fasting in young Israeli Muslims are gender-specific
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  • Published: 19 February 2026

Trajectories of mental distress and quality of life during Ramadan fasting in young Israeli Muslims are gender-specific

  • Mahmood Sindiani1 &
  • Maria Korman2 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Health care
  • Psychology

Abstract

There is a knowledge gap concerning mental health changes across the Ramadan period. In a study of 284 young Israeli Muslim adults, we explored within-subject changes in global distress (GD), specific symptoms (depression, anxiety, stress), and quality of life (QoL) across five assessments spanning Ramadan fast. Using repeated-measures general linear modeling, significant effects were found for GD [F(4) = 20.890, p < 0.001], demonstrating a two-stage reduction in scores: an initial decrease during the first week of Ramadan, followed by a further decrease post-Ramadan. Females consistently reported higher GD scores [F(1) = 12.656, p < 0.001], though no significant time-point×sex interactions were found. However, during Ramadan, females exhibited a transient GD increase [F(1) = 4.053, p = 0.046], which was not observed in males. Subscale analyses revealed significant reductions in Depression [F(4) = 12.260, p < 0.001], Anxiety [F(4) = 16.388, p < 0.001], and Stress [F(4) = 20.583, p < 0.001]. Improvements in Depression and Anxiety scores occurred during the first week of Ramadan. Post-Ramadan reductions in Anxiety and Stress scales were observed. Despite these symptom improvements, subjective quality of life declined during Ramadan, particularly among females, but recovered post-Ramadan. Participants reported increased social commitments during Ramadan, expressing a preference to reduce these pressures while maintaining the spiritual aspects of the fast. Our findings highlight that Ramadan fast is associated with short-term improvements in mental health symptoms, though the temporal pattern of change varies by sex. However, social obligations may have introduced a temporary trade-off, negatively impacting self-reported quality of life, especially for women. These insights may inform culturally sensitive interventions that maximize Ramadan’s mental health benefits while mitigating temporary quality of life declines.

Data availability

We included all the data needed for the evaluation of the conclusions in the Results section or in the Supplementary Information file. Additional data related to this article may be requested from the corresponding author (Dr. M. Sindiani, mahmoods@l-w.ac.il).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Vadim Tkachev, Jihad Masharqa and Chen Fleischmann for their help in this project.

Funding

This work was supported by the internal grant from Ariel University [grant number RA2200000224].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Levinsky-Wingate Academic College, Wingate Institute, Netanya, 4290200, Israel

    Mahmood Sindiani

  2. Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

    Maria Korman

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M.S. Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Project administration, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. M.K. Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

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Sindiani, M., Korman, M. Trajectories of mental distress and quality of life during Ramadan fasting in young Israeli Muslims are gender-specific. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-39211-1

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  • Received: 17 July 2025

  • Accepted: 03 February 2026

  • Published: 19 February 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-39211-1

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Keywords

  • Ramadan fast
  • Mental well-being
  • Gender
  • Social pressure
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Stress
  • Quality of life
  • Resilience
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