The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Eating, Body Image, and Social Media Habits Among Women With and Without Symptoms of Orthorexia Nervosa

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is negatively impacting people’s mental health worldwide. The current study examined the effects of COVID-19 lockdown on adult women’s eating, body image, and social media habits. Furthermore, we compared individuals with and without signs of orthorexia nervosa, a proposed eating disorder. Participants were 143 women, aged 17–73 years (M = 25.85, SD = 8.12), recruited during a COVID-19 lockdown in Canada from May-June 2020. Participants completed self-report questionnaires on their eating, body image, and social media habits during the pandemic. The Eating Habits Questionnaire (EHQ) assessed symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. Compared to the period prior to lockdown, women with higher total orthorexia nervosa scores reported eating a lot more than usual, feeling greater pressure to diet and lose weight, thinking about food more often than usual, experiencing greater weight gain, and perceiving more pressure from social media specifically to lose weight and to exercise, compared to their healthy counterparts. We examined associations between individual EHQ subscales and perceived changes to eating and weight. Women who scored high on EHQ-Problems reported seeing more weight loss content on their social media than those who reported fewer orthorexia nervosa symptoms. Conversely, those who scored low on EHQ-Feelings reported feeling a lot less pressure to lose weight, somewhat less or a lot less pressure to lose weight or to exercise from social media specifically, and trended toward less laxative use during lockdown, compared to those who scored higher on orthorexia nervosa. And those who scored low on EHQ-Knowledge reported feeling somewhat less or a lot less pressure to lose weight than those who reported more orthorexia nervosa symptoms. Together, the findings suggest that women with symptoms of orthorexia nervosa are experiencing an exacerbation of disordered eating thoughts and behaviors during COVID-19, and that social media may be a contributing factor.

COVID-19-related changes in eating disorder pathology, emotional and binge eating and need for care: a systematic review with frequentist and Bayesian meta-analyses

“…This may have brought forth concerns of gaining weight, which is common in people with EDs [ 25 , 91 ], and increased the symptoms of EDs [ 90 ] and related behaviors such as EE. Third, the immense increase in social media usage during the pandemic may have led to raised worries regarding body appearance and disordered eating [ 92 – 94 ]. Fourth, limiting grocery trips and food access may have resulted in food insecurity, worries about the availability of food, and hoarding that are related to urges to binge [ 12 , 27 ].…”

Parental Perspectives of the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Food-Related Behaviors: Systematic Review

“…In addition, a related line of research has examined pandemic-induced stress and food-related mental health [ 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ]. Previous research has revealed a wide range of psychosocial impacts of infectious disease that may produce fear in the community or individuals in relation to getting sick or dying, or feeling helpless or stigmatised [ 66 ].…”

COVID-19 Pandemic Consequences among Individuals with Eating Disorders on a Clinical Sample in Poland—A Cross-Sectional Study

“…It contributed to the appearance and exacerbation of depression, anxiety, stress, psychological distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleep disturbances (especially insomnia), among others [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Moreover, the pandemic caused the exacerbation of various ED, including increasing the tendency of orthorexia nervosa, which greatly worsened the mental health of individuals with these disorders [ 31 , 32 ]. Most of our respondents (over 80%) reported that the pandemic caused a general deterioration in the quality of their life.…”