Trajectories of eating behavior during COVID-19 lockdown: Longitudinal analyses of 22,374 adults

Abstract

Background & Aims The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the implementation of stay-at-home and lockdown measures. It is currently unknown if the experience of lockdown leads to long term changes in individual’s eating behaviors. The objectives of this study were: i) to derive longitudinal trajectories of change in eating during UK lockdown, and ii) to identify risk factors associated with eating behavior trajectories. Method Data from 22,374 UK adults from the UCL COVID-19 Social study (a panel study collecting weekly data during the pandemic) were analyzed from 28 th March to 29 th May 2020. Latent Class Growth Analysis was used to derive trajectories of change in eating. These were then associated with prior socio-economic, heath-related and psychological factors using multinomial regression models. Results Analyses suggested five trajectories, with the majority (64%) showing no change in eating. In contrast, one trajectory was marked by persistently eating more, whereas another by persistently eating less. Overall, participants with greater depressive symptoms were more likely to report any change in eating. Loneliness was linked to persistently eating more (OR= 1.07), whereas being single or divorced, as well as stressful life events, were associated with consistently eating less (OR= 1.69). Overall, higher education status was linked to lower odds of changing eating behavior (OR= 0.54-0.77). Secondary exploratory analyses suggest that participants self-reported to have overweight were most common amongst the consistently overeaters, whereas underweight participants persistently ate less. Conclusion In this study, we found that one third of the sample report changes in quantities eaten throughout the first UK lockdown period. Findings highlight the importance of adjusting public health programs to support eating behaviors in future lockdowns both in this and potential future pandemics. This is particularly important as part of on-going preventive efforts to prevent nutrition-related chronic diseases.

Tired, Worried and Burned Out, but Still Resilient: A Cross-Sectional Study of Mental Health Workers in the UK during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This could well be attributed to “comfort eating”, i.e. eating induced by negative affect [ 49 ] as also supported by a large population based study [ 50 ] whereby individuals with depressive symptoms were more likely to report a change in eating habits.…”

The impact of COVID‐19 on health behaviour, well‐being, and long‐term physical health

“…Data from a large study of 22,374 UK adults found that one third reported changes to quantities of food consumed through the first lockdown period. Subgroups of the population were found to persistently eat more, whilst others reported eating less (particularly those who were already underweight; Herle, Smith, Bu, Steptoe, & Fancourt, 2021). Another study found that 56% of participants reported snacking more frequently (Robinson et al, 2021).…”

“…A recent study indicated that people have consumed on average one portion of fruit and vegetables less per day than before the pandemic (Naughton et al, 2021). A potential mechanism for changes to eating behaviours may be emotion dysregulation, with those reporting changes to their eating behaviours during the pandemic also displaying greater levels of depression (Herle et al, 2021; McAtamney et al, 2021). Barriers to weight management have, for example, included reports of lower motivation to eat healthily and lower control over eating (Robinson et al, 2021).…”

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Weight and BMI among UK Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis of Data from the HEBECO Study

“…Some studies find women increasing exercise more than men [58], being less likely to alter their alcohol intake [55] and being more likely to increase fruit and vegetables intake, eat less or partake in healthy eating [8,21,58]. However, UK women have also been shown to eat both more and less during the pandemic [18]. Greater COVID-19-related stress was reported in females during the start of the pandemic, but psychological distress tended to return to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2020 [59,60].…”