ArticleEuropean journal of nutrition2022
Psychological distress resulting from the COVID-19 confinement is associated with unhealthy dietary changes in two Italian population-based cohorts.
Article in European journal of nutrition, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dietary eating patterns, dairy consumption, and anxiety: A systematic literature review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Ultra-processed food exposure and health outcomes: Current evidence, controversies, and future perspectives.EXCLI journal · 2026Review
- Correlates of Dietary Changes During COVID-19 in Immunosuppressed Individuals and Their Relatives: Alignment with Nutritional Recommendations.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Associations between mental health and lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in a general Japanese population: NIPPON DATA2010.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2025Article
- Older Adults' Exposure to Food Media Induced Unhealthy Eating during the COVID-19 Omicron Lockdown? Exploring Negative Emotions and Associated Literacy and Efficacy on Shanghainese.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Are Foods from the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Low in Nutrients? An Analysis of Chinese Psychological Distress Effects.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Quality of life in liver transplant recipients during the Corona virus disease 19 pandemic: A multicentre study.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2022Article
- How do Vaccinators Experience the Pandemic? Lifestyle Behaviors in a Sample of Italian Public Health Workers during the COVID-19 Era.Vaccines · 2022Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the PREDIMED-Plus randomized clinical trial: Effects on the interventions, participants follow-up, and adiposity.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- Promoting fruit and vegetable consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic - SportStudisMoveYou (SSMY): A randomized controlled trial.AIMS public health · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeTo examine the relationship between psychological distress resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown and dietary changes.
methodsCross-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).
resultsIn 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 (β = - 0.16; 95% CI - 0.26, - 0.06).
conclusionsPsychological 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.
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