Lockdowns, which were put in place to help curb the spread of COVID-19, could be linked to an increase in symptoms associated with eating disorders, finds a new study.
The study was carried out by academics from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in England and examined the behavior and attitudes of 319 health club members during the summer of 2020.
The study
For the study, findings of which were recently published in the journal ‘Psychiatry Research’, researchers followed up initial research into addictive or unhealthy behaviors, conducted in 2019, to investigate the effects of the first COVID-19 restrictions introduced in 2020.
Participants, with an average age of 37, completed the eating attitudes test, called EAT-26, which involved answering questions related to statements such as ‘I am terrified about being overweight’, ‘I have the impulse to vomit after meals’, and ‘I feel extremely guilty after eating’.
Findings
The researchers found that average EAT-26 scores had significantly increased in 2020, post-lockdown, compared to 2019, suggesting higher levels of abnormal eating behaviors such as anorexia (excessive desire to lose weight) and bulimia (extreme overeating followed by self-induced vomiting).
Mike Trott, a PhD researcher at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) who led the study, said, “We can’t say for certain that COVID-19 is responsible for this increase in behavior associated with eating disorders. However, we do know that people often use food as a coping mechanism for stress, and clearly many people have been impacted by stressful events and significant changes over the last 12 months.”
“If future lockdowns or periods of enforced quarantine are required, practitioners working with people with suspected eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia, should monitor these behaviors closely,” Mr. Trott added.
Exercise addiction
Encouragingly, the study found that symptoms of exercise addiction fell following the first lockdown, but average exercise rates increased by an hour a week compared to 2019.
“It could be that the participants in our study were eager to restart their exercise routines post-lockdown and make up for time lost by exercising more. Regardless of motives, there are many physical and mental health benefits to regular exercise, so this is a positive finding,” Mr. Trott concluded.
