5/19/2023 0 Comments Nutritional habitsThey were asked to report their weight on the 11th of March and at the date of the questionnaire compilation (see below). According to our weight loss program, patients should weigh themselves every day with the same scale. A snack was considered as every eating occasion between main meals. Exercise during the lockdown was considered as practicing at home (indoor exercise bike, treadmill, and resistance training) or jogging/running around the house, given that it was not possible either to participate in organized sports or perform other outdoor activities. The questions were relative to the weight before and after 1 month of lockdown and working activity and exercise during quarantine, with many items related to the changes in dietary habits and the conditions potentially impacting on nutritional choices. No other data about the effects of quarantine in adult individuals with obesity are currently available. It has been hypothesized that the increased out-of-school time may exacerbate the weight gain of children in a similar way to summer recess. Furthermore, social isolation might worse lifestyle behaviors with enhanced sedentarism, as well as decreased outdoor time and increased weight gain. The rise in unstructured time might induce overeating and increase screen time. Usual lifestyle habits have been heavily disrupted by the mandatory stay-at-home orders, which may result in important behavior changes, particularly dietary habits, in this kind of natural experiment, “forced” by an unpredictable emergency. The mental health burden during the COVID-19 outbreak has been evaluated by a few studies, and an increased rate of anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and poor sleep quality has been reported. This enforced quarantine can have a heavy psychological impact, above all among persons with obesity who are already at risk of social isolation and experiencing higher rates of depression. Therefore, since the 10th of March, 2020, the month of the start of the “lockdown”, millions of Italians were forced to remain at home. The adverse mental burden linked to the COVID-19 pandemic was greatly associated with increased weight gain. Individuals with obesity significantly gained weight 1 month after the beginning of the quarantine. The estimated direct effect of self-reported anxiety/depression on weight was 2.07 kg (1.07, 3.07, p < 0.001). Multiple regression analyses showed that increased education (inversely, β = −1.15 95%CI −2.13, −0.17, p = 0.022), self-reported anxiety/depression (β = 1.61 0.53, 2.69, p = 0.004), and not consuming healthy foods (β = 1.48 0.19, 2.77, p = 0.026) were significantly associated with increased weight gain. Lower exercise, self-reported boredom/solitude, anxiety/depression, enhanced eating, consumption of snacks, unhealthy foods, cereals, and sweets were correlated with a significantly higher weight gain. Mean self-reported weight gain was ≈1.5 kg ( p < 0.001). A total of 150 subjects (91.5%) completed the questionnaire. A multivariate regression analysis was performed to evaluate the associations among weight/BMI changes and the analyzed variables. In this observational retrospective study, the patients of our Obesity Unit were invited to answer to a 12-question multiple-choice questionnaire relative to weight changes, working activity, exercise, dietary habits, and conditions potentially impacting on nutritional choices. Our aim is evaluating the changes in weight and dietary habits in a sample of outpatients with obesity after 1 month of enforced lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Italy.
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