Psychological distress resulting from the COVID-19 confinement is associated with unhealthy dietary changes in two Italian population-based cohorts.
Eur J Nutr
; 61(3): 1491-1505, 2022 Apr.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1540216
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
To examine the relationship between psychological distress resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown and dietary changes.METHODS:
Cross-sectional analysis from 2 retrospective Italian cohorts recruited from May to September 2020 (1) The Moli-LOCK cohort consists of 1401 participants from the Moli-sani Study (n = 24,325) who were administered a telephone-based questionnaire to assess lifestyles and psychological factors during confinement; (2) the ALT RISCOVID-19 is a web-based survey of 1340 individuals distributed throughout Italy who self-responded to the same questionnaire using Google® forms. Psychological distress was measured by assessments of depression (PHQ-9 and depressive items from the Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health- SQD-D), anxiety (GAD-7), stress (PSS-4), and post-traumatic stress disorder (SQD-P). Diet quality was assessed either as changes in consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) or adherence to Mediterranean diet (MD).RESULTS:
In ALT RISCOVID-19, increased UPF intake was directly associated with depression (both PHQ-9 and SQD-D; p < 0.0001), anxiety (p < 0.0001), stress (p = 0.001) and SQD-P (p = 0.001); similar results were obtained in the Moli-LOCK cohort except for perceived stress. When psychometric scales were analysed simultaneously, only depression (SQD-D) remained associated with UPF (both cohorts). In both cohorts, psychological distress poorly influenced changes toward an MD, except for depression (SQD-D) that resulted inversely associated in the ALT RISCOVID-19 participants (ß = - 0.16; 95% CI - 0.26, - 0.06).CONCLUSIONS:
Psychological distress from the COVID-19 confinement is directly associated with unhealthy dietary modifications in two Italian cohorts. In view of possible future restrictive measures to contain pandemic, public health actions are warranted to mitigate the impact of psychological distress on diet quality.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Diet, Mediterranean
/
Psychological Distress
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Eur J Nutr
Journal subject:
Nutritional Sciences
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S00394-021-02752-4
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