Introduction: Public health measures enacted to reduce COVID-19 transmission have affected individuals’ lifestyles, mental health and psychological well-being. To date, little is known how stay-at-home orders have influenced the eating behaviors, weight development, and alcohol consumption of quarantined persons. The CoCo-Fakt cohort study analyzed these parameters and their association with psychological distress and coping strategies. Methods: An online survey was conducted of all persons who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (infected persons = IP) between December 12, 2020, and January 6, 2021, as well as their close contacts (contact persons = CP) registered by the public health department of Cologne. 8,075 of 33,699 individuals were included in the analysis. In addition to demographic data, psychological distress, and coping strategies, information on changes in body weight, eating and drinking behaviors was collected. Results: IP lost 1.2 ± 4.4 kg during the quarantine period, and CP gained 1.6 ± 4.1 kg. The reasons given by IP for weight change were mainly loss of taste and feeling sick, whereas CP were more likely than IP to eat out of boredom. Higher psychological burden and lower coping strategies were associated with both weight gain and loss. Of the 30.8% of participants who changed their alcohol consumption during the quarantine period, CP in particular drank more alcohol (IP 15.2%; CP 47.7%). Significantly less alcohol was consumed by individuals with higher coping scores. Conclusion: In this short but psychologically stressful period of stay-at-home orders, changes in eating and drinking behavior as well as weight development are evident; mainly in high-risk contacts. To avoid possible long-term sequelae, health authorities should take these findings into account during the quarantine period; in particular, general practitioners should consider these findings during follow-up.

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Measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly stressful for families. Limited data is available regarding the effects of a mandatory quarantine on the psychological stress of children, adolescents and their parents. Quarantined individuals participating in the online-based CoCo-Fakt study had at least one child <3, 3 to <6, 6 to <10, 10 to <14 and 14 to <16 years old (n = 2153). Parents were asked about how often their children felt nervous, anxious, or tense, down or depressed, lonely or physical reactions occur. A relative sum score characterizing psychosocial stress was determined and related to parents’ socio-demographic factors, psychosocial distress, coping strategies and resilience. Parents reported significantly higher psychological stress if at least one child was quarantined. Parents’ relative psychological stress sum score had the strongest influence on the psychological state of the children across all age groups (β = 0.315–0.457) besides male sex of the reporting parent, no partnership, low to medium socioeconomic status, lower resilience and coping scores, and parents quarantined as close contacts. The variance in the linear regression models was between 17.8% and 31.4%. These findings highlight that the entire family system must be considered during official mandatory quarantines.