A new study into the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic found links to six unhealthy eating behaviors, according to a study by the University of Minnesota Medical School and School of Public Health. Researchers say the most concerning finding indicates a slight increase or the re-emergence of eating disorders, which kill roughly 10,200 people every year — about one person every 52 minutes.
U of M Medical School’s Melissa Simone, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, collaborated with School of Public Health Professor and Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, MPH, to learn from study participants in Neumark-Sztainer’s Project EAT between April and May 2020.
The study aimed to understand potential associations between stress, psychological distress, financial difficulties and changes in eating behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic through the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. The findings, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, found six key themes of eating behavior changes: mindless eating and snacking; increased food consumption; generalized decrease in appetite or dietary intake; eating to cope; pandemic-related reductions in dietary intake; and a re-emergence or marked increase in eating disorder symptoms.
Approximately 8% of those studied reported extreme unhealthy weight control behaviors, 53% had less extreme unhealthy weight control behaviors and 14% reported binge eating. The study revealed that these outcomes were significantly associated with poorer stress management, greater depressive symptoms and moderate or extreme financial difficulties.
