Investigation of Ukrainian refugees’ eating behavior, food intake, and psychological distress: study protocol and baseline data

Abstract

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, almost 8 million people left the country; more than 1 million of them relocated to Germany. It is to be expected that the war puts considerable strain on the refugees, which will impact the public health system in the host countries. This paper presents the baseline data and protocol of a longitudinal online experimental study of 585 Ukrainian refugees in Germany conducted in autumn 2022, focusing on participants’ self-reports of appetite, food intake as well as their psycho-emotional state including levels of stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms to examine their associations. Results indicate that the levels of stress, depressive symptoms and anxiety in refugees significantly exceed the pre-war indicators of the relevant parameters: 63.5%/ 73.3%/ 64% of the sample reported clinically relevant levels of stress, depression and anxiety, respectively. Associations with eating behavior were mostly small (-.02 ≤ rs ≤ .25) and strongest for elevated depression scores. The study underlines the need of short- and long-term psychological care for refugees to improve their mental health and counteract potential negative consequences for physical health via changes in eating behavior, for which suitable interventions need to be developed.