Comparing eating behaviours, and symptoms of depression and anxiety between Spain and Greece during the COVID‐19 outbreak: Cross‐sectional analysis of two different confinement strategies

Abstract

Objective: We compared eating behaviours, and depressive and anxiety symptoms in two countries with different confinement strictness strategies and different levels of COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A web-based cross-sectional survey was administered during and shortly after the COVID-19 related lockdown in Spain and Greece. Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to identify country differences associated with eating behaviour, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Results: This study included 1,002 responders in Spain and 839 in Greece. The mean ± SD of restraint, emotional and external eating was 2.5 ± 0.79, 2.1 ± 0.81 and 2.6 ± 0.65 in Spain, whereas 2.7 ± 0.85, 2.3 ± 0.99 and 2.9 ± 0.74 in Greece. Spanish participants had lower average scores of restraint and external eating compared to Greek participants (p < .001), but no difference was seen for emotional eating. In Spain, 13.6%, and 12.3% of the survey respondents reported moderate to severe depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively, whereas in Greece the respective values were 18.8 and 13.2%. After adjusting for several risk factors, a higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms was observed in Spain compared to Greece (p = .001), but no difference was seen for depressive symptoms. Conclusions: This study demonstrated high scores of inappropriate eating behaviours and a high frequency of depressive and anxiety symptoms in two Mediterranean countries during the COVID-19 outbreak. Our findings revealed that compared to Greek participants, Spanish participants, that faced more severe COVID-19 pandemic and stricter lockdown measures, were associated with lower restraint and external eating and increased anxiety symptoms, but not with depressive symptoms or emotional eating.

Do Age and Symptoms of Anxiety, Stress and Depression Predict Risk Behaviors for Eating Disorders in Brazilian Men and Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic?

“…Regarding the risk behavior for Eating disorders, it can be noted that women reported having a higher risk of developing EDs than men. These ndings are similar to other studies in literature which demonstrate a signi cant proportion of the risk for eating disorders reported in women during the pandemic [39,47].…”

“…According to the authors this may be due to a number of factors, including the availability of speci c foods, as well as increased stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms as a result of social distance measures. Papandreou et al [47] a rmed, in a cross-sectional study with a higher prevalence of women, that eating behaviors can be affected during the pandemic and can thus trigger risks for the development of eating disorders. The authors also noted that the Spanish population suffered less from binge eating when compared to the…”

Prevalence of anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic: An updated meta-analysis of community-based studies

“…After reading the remaining 72 articles in June and 94 in August ( n = 166), we included 15 and 28 articles in our study, respectively ( n = 43). ( Ahmed et al, 2020a ; Alkhamees et al, 2020 ; Arafa et al, 2020 ; Ayhan Başer et al, 2020 ; Al Banna et al, 2020 ; Bäuerle et al, 2020 ; Choi et al, 2020 ; Cortés-Álvarez et al, 2020 ; Elhai et al, 2020 ; Fernández et al, 2020 ; Forte et al, 2020 ; Fu et al, 2020 ; Fullana et al, 2020 ; Galindo-Vázquez et al, 2020 ; Gao et al, 2020 ; Horesh et al, 2020 ; Huang and Zhao, 2020 ; Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020 ; Hyland et al, 2020 ; Islam et al, 2020 ; Kazmi et al, 2020 ; Lei et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Moghanibashi-Mansourieh, 2020 ; Newby et al, 2020 ; Orellana and Orellana, 2020 ; Ozamiz-Etxebarria et al, 2020 ; Özdin and Bayrak Özdin, 2020 ; Palgi et al, 2020 ; Papandreou et al, 2020 ; Paulino et al, 2020 ; Pieh et al, 2020 ; Rettie and Daniels, 2020 ; Rodríguez-Rey et al, 2020 ; Shevlin et al, 2020 ; Shi et al, 2020 ; Solomou and Constantinidou, 2020 ; Stanton et al, 2020 ; Verma and Mishra, 2020 ; C. Wang et al, 2020a ; Y. Wang et al, 2020 ; Zhao et al, 2020 ).…”

COVID Isolation Eating Scale (CIES): Analysis of the impact of confinement in eating disorders and obesity—A collaborative international study

“…In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several studies have already been carried out to explore the psychological effects of the pandemic and confinement. In the general population, anxiety, depression, stress, worry about being infected, worry about family members being infected, worry about financial stress stability, posttraumatic stress (Cao et al, 2020;Wang, Pan, et al, 2020;Wang, Di et al, 2020), but also mental health deterioration (Pierce, Hope, Ford, et al, 2020) and nutritional and activity patterns changes (Papandreou, Tsilidis, Arija, Aretouli, & Bulló, 2020), have been reported. Healthcare workers have emerged as a specific population in danger of suffering from psychological distress, depression, anxiety and insomnia (Inchausti, García-Poveda, Prado-Abril, & Sánchez-Reales, 2020;Lai et al, 2020;Rossi et al, 2020) and populations with a prior mental health condition may experience an increase in their symptomatology related to changes in the delivery of their usual treatment (De Girolamo et al, 2020;Fernández-Aranda et al, 2020).…”