ArticleAppetite2021
Increased emotional eating during COVID-19 associated with lockdown, psychological and social distress.
Article in Appetite, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 130 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
130 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 269 citations in OpenAlex.
- Feeding the feelings: gender differences in emotional eating during COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review of weight stigma and disordered eating cognitions and behaviors.Body image · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Relationship between Mental Health and Emotional Eating during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Psychological impact of the quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic on the general European adult population: a systematic review of the evidence.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- Eating Motives and Other Factors Predicting Emotional Overeating during COVID-19 in a Sample of Polish Adults.Nutrients · 2021Trial
- Longitudinal Weight Gain and Related Risk Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Adults in the US.Nutrients · 2021Trial
- Attachment Anxiety and Disordered Eating Among Chinese Young Women: The Mediation of Different Negative Emotions.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Associations of Emotional Eating with Perceived Stress and Sleep Quality Among University Students: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Article
- Interoceptive mechanisms of a mobile heart rate variability biofeedback app for eating disorder symptoms: Proof-of-concept findings.Eating behaviors · 2026Article
- Prevalence of negative emotional eating in middle-aged adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Chronic emotional stress and mediating role of Interleukin-6 in the association with cardiometabolic disorders in a multiethnic middle-aged and older US population.International journal of cardiology. Cardiovascular risk and prevention · 2025Article
- A cross-sectional analysis of emotional and binge eating in UK adults enrolled on the NHS low-calorie diet pilot for type 2 diabetes.Clinical obesity · 2025Article
- The relevance of cardiac and gastric interoception for disordered eating behavior.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Explainable machine learning models predicting the risk of social isolation in older adults: a prospective cohort study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Conceptualizing the effects of COVID-19 on eating and physical activity in people with type 2 diabetes and hypertension in Ecuador using the social ecological model.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Pandemic Recipes-Nutritional Values of Recipes in Legacy Media.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Cross-Cultural Validation of the Binge Eating Disorder Screener-7 (BEDS-7) Across 42 Countries.The International journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
70 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Due to the spread of COVID 2019, the Italian government imposed a lockdown on the national territory. Initially, citizens were required to stay at home and not to mix with others outside of their household (Phase 1); eventually, some of these restrictions were lifted (Phase 2). To investigate the impact of lockdown on emotional and binge eating, an online survey was conducted to compare measures of self-reported physical (BMI), psychological (Alexithymia), affective (anxiety, stress, and depression) and social (income, workload) state during Phase 1 and Phase 2. Data from 365 Italian residents showed that increased emotional eating was predicted by higher depression, anxiety, quality of personal relationships, and quality of life, while the increase of bingeing was predicted by higher stress. Moreover, we showed that higher alexithymia scores were associated by increased emotional eating and higher BMI scores were associated with both increased emotional eating and binge eating. Finally, we found that from Phase 1 to Phase 2 binge and emotional eating decreased. These data provide evidence of the negative effects of isolation and lockdown on emotional wellbeing, and, relatedly, on eating behaviour.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.