Commentary on "Food addiction, orthorexia nervosa and dietary diversity among Bangladeshi university students: a large online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic".

The food addiction construct is receiving increasing attention from researchers and clinicians worldwide. Given its rise, scientific production on the subject is increasingly abundant. Conducting studies evaluating food addiction in emerging countries is of great importance, given that most scientific production comes from high-income countries. A recent study aimed to explore the prevalences of orthorexia nervosa and food addiction and their associations with dietary diversity in university students in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. This correspondence presents questions about using the older version of the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale to assess food addiction. It also highlights issues related to the prevalence of food addiction observed in the study.

Association between being underweight and excess body weight before SARS coronavirus type 2 infection and clinical outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019: Multicenter study.

OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to identify associations between extremes in body weight status (underweight and excess body weight) before a COVID-19 diagnosis and clinical outcomes in patients infected with SARS coronavirus type 2. METHODS: A multicenter cohort study was conducted in eight different states in northeastern Brazil. Demographic, clinical (previous diagnosis of comorbidities), and anthropometric (self-reported weight and height) data about individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 were collected. Outcomes included hospitalization, mechanical ventilation, and death. Multivariable logistic regression models, adjusted based on age, sex and previous comorbidities, were used to assess the effects of extremes in body weight status on clinical outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 1308 individuals were assessed (33.6% were elderly individuals). The univariable analyses showed that only hospitalization was more often observed among underweight (3.2% versus 1.2%) and overweight (68.1% versus 63.3%) individuals. In turn, cardiovascular diseases were more often observed in all clinical outcomes (hospitalization: 19.7% versus 4.8%; mechanical ventilation: 19.9% versus 13.5%; death: 21.8% versus 14.1%). Based on the multivariable analysis, body weight status was not associated with risk of hospitalization (underweight: odds ratio [OR]: 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI] 95%, 0.50-2.41 and excess body weight: OR: 0.81; 95 CI, 0.57-1.14), mechanical ventilation (underweight: OR: 0.92; 95% CI, 0.52-1.62 and excess weight: OR: 0.90; 95% CI, 0.67-1.19), and death (underweight: OR: 0.61; 95% CI, 0.31-1.20 and excess body weight: OR 0.88; 95% CI, 0.63-1.23). CONCLUSIONS: Being underweight and excess body weight were not independently associated with clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 in the herein analyzed cohort. This finding indicates that the association between these variables may be confounded by both age and comorbidities.