COVID-19 Pounds: Quarantine and Weight Gain

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of stay-at-home policies on people's health behaviours towards weight gain and probable obesity attributable to imposing the order. Using Google Trends data, we investigate whether the lockdowns that were implemented in the U.S. led to changes in weight-gain-related online search behaviours. To probe the causal link between lockdown policies and changes in weight-gainrelated topics, we employ the differences-indifferences method and regression discontinuity design and we find a significant increase in the search intensity for workout and weight loss, while the search intensity for fitness, nutrition and fast food appears to have declined. Our results from using event study regression suggest that changes in health behaviours began weeks before lockdown orders were implemented contemporaneously with emergency declarations and other partial closures about COVID-19. The findings suggest that people's health-related behaviours regarding weight gain were affected by the lockdowns.

Weight cycling among Indonesian college students in West Java province during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many adults have felt significantly more anxious about being infected with the virus (Pellegrini et al, 2020). Though the PSBB has prevented direct public interaction, yet many people have become stressed by the pandemic's boring routines at home (Hasanzadeh & Alishahi, 2020).…”