Risk and protective factors for new‐onset binge eating, low weight, and self‐harm symptoms in &gt;35,000 individuals in the <scp>UK</scp> during the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 pandemic

Davies, Helena L.; Hübel, Christopher; Herle, Moritz; Kakar, Saakshi; Mundy, Jessica; Peel, Alicia J.; Kuile, Abigail ter; Zvrskovec, Johan; Monssen, Dina; Lim, Kai Xiang; Davies, Molly R.; Palmos, Alish; Yu, Lin; Kalsi, Gursharan; Rogers, H. J.; Bristow, Shannon; Glen, Kiran; Malouf, Chelsea Mika; Kelly, Emily J; Purves, Kirstin; Young, Katherine S.; Hotopf, Matthew; Armour, Chérie; McIntosh, Andrew M.; Eley, Thalia C.; Treasure, Janet; Breen, Gerome

doi:10.1002/eat.23834

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…These differences may reflect associations between disordered eating, reduced physical activity and poor mental health exacerbated by the pandemic. 20,21 Our finding highlights the need for health services to ensure parity of esteem 22 between physical and mental health conditions when prioritising groups to be supported by weight loss interventions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Trends in weight gain recorded in English primary care before and during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform

Samuel

Park

Eastwood

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background We investigated which clinical and sociodemographic characteristics were associated with unhealthy patterns of weight gain amongst adults living in England during the pandemic. Methods With the approval of NHS England we conducted an observational cohort study of Body Mass Index (BMI) changes between March 2015 and March 2022 using the OpenSAFELY–TPP platform. We estimated individual rates of weight gain before and during the pandemic, and identified individuals with rapid weight gain (>0.5kg/m2/year) in each period. We also estimated the change in rate of weight gain between the prepandemic and pandemic period and defined extreme-accelerators as the ten percent of individuals with the greatest increase (>1.84kg/m2/year). We estimated associations with these outcomes using multivariate logistic regression. Findings We extracted data on 17,742,365 adults (50.1% female, 76.1% White British). Median BMI increased from 27.8kg/m2[IQR:24.3 to 32.1] in 2019 (March 2019 to February 2020) to 28.0kg/m2[24.4 to 32.6] in 2021. Rapid pandemic weight gain (n=3,214,155) was associated with female sex (male vs female: aOR 0.76 [95%CI:0.76 to 0.76]); younger age (50 to 59 years vs 18 to 29 years: aOR 0.60 [0.60 to 0.61]); White British ethnicity (Black Caribbean vs White British: aOR 0.91 [0.89 to 0.94]); deprivation (least–deprived–IMD–quintile vs most–deprived:aOR 0.77 [0.77 to 0.78]); and long-term conditions, of which mental health conditions had the greatest effect (e.g. depression (aOR 1.18[1.17 to 1.18])). Similar characteristics increased risk of extreme acceleration (n=2,768,695). Interpretation We found female sex, younger age, deprivation and mental health conditions increased risk of unhealthy patterns of pandemic weight gain. This highlights the need to incorporate sociodemographic, physical, and mental health characteristics when formulating post-pandemic research, policies, and interventions targeting BMI. Funding NIHR

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Trends in weight gain recorded in English primary care before and during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform

Samuel

Park

Eastwood

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…A U.S. study found that access to care for eating disorders decreased among patients with low socioeconomic status during the pandemic (Otto et al, 2021). Previous studies have found that binge eating symptoms were more common in individuals experiencing financial hardship or unemployment during the pandemic (Davies et al, 2022;Mikhail et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting age of child eating disorder hospitalizations during the Covid‐19 pandemic

Auger

Steiger

Luu

et al. 2023

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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Background: We studied the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on child eating disorder hospitalizations in Quebec, Canada. Quebec had one of the strictest lockdown measures targeting young people in North America. Methods: We analyzed eating disorder hospitalizations in children aged 10-19 years before and during the pandemic. We used interrupted time series regression to assess trends in the monthly number of hospitalizations for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and other eating disorders before the pandemic (April 2006 to February 2020), and during the first (March to August 2020) and second waves (September 2020 to March 2021). We determined the types of eating disorders requiring hospital treatment and identified the age, sex and socioeconomic subgroups that were most affected. Results: Hospitalization rates for eating disorders increased during the first (6.5 per 10,000) and second waves (12.8 per 10,000) compared with the period before the pandemic (5.8 per 10,000). The increase occurred for anorexia nervosa as well as other types of eating disorders. The number of girls and boys aged 10-14 years admitted for eating disorders increased during wave 1. Wave 2 triggered an increase in eating disorder admissions among girls aged 15-19 years. Hospitalization rates increased earlier for advantaged than disadvantaged youth. Conclusions: The Covid-19 pandemic affected hospitalizations for anorexia nervosa as well as other eating disorders, beginning with girls aged 10-14 years during wave 1, followed by girls aged 15-19 years during wave 2. Boys aged 10-14 years were also affected, as well as both advantaged and disadvantaged youth.

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“…Researchers can either submit proposals for participant recontact or access de‐identified data for their own research projects. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, participants were invited to the COVID‐19 Psychiatry and Neurological Genetics (COPING) study, which began at the first UK lockdown to monitor pandemic effects on mental health in which >900 EDGI UK survey participants took part (Davies et al, 2022; Young et al, 2021). As of 2022, EDGI UK is part of the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC), a national collaborative effort for harmonizing health data for longitudinal research.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The United Kingdom Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative

Monssen

Davies

Kakar

et al. 2023

Intl J Eating Disorders

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ObjectiveThe United Kingdom Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI UK), part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Mental Health BioResource, aims to deepen our understanding of the environmental and genetic etiology of eating disorders. EDGI UK launched in February 2020 and is partnered with the UK eating disorders charity, Beat. Multiple EDGI branches exist worldwide. This article serves the dual function of providing an in‐depth description of our study protocol and of describing our initial sample including demographics, diagnoses, and physical and psychiatric comorbidities.MethodEDGI UK recruits via media and clinical services. Anyone living in England, at least 16 years old, with a lifetime probable or clinical eating disorder is eligible to sign up online: edgiuk.org. Participants complete online questionnaires, donate a saliva sample for genetic analysis, and consent to medical record linkage and recontact for future studies.ResultsAs of September 2022, EDGI UK recruited 7435 survey participants: 98% female, 93.1% white, 97.8% cisgender, 65.9% heterosexual, and 52.1% have a university degree. Over half (57.8%) of these participants have returned their saliva DNA kit. The most common diagnoses are anorexia nervosa (48.3%), purging disorder (37.8%), bulimia nervosa (37.5%), binge‐eating disorder (15.8%), and atypical anorexia nervosa (7.8%).ConclusionEDGI UK is the largest UK eating disorders study and efforts to increase its diversity are underway. It offers a unique opportunity to accelerate eating disorder research. Researchers and participants with lived experience can collaborate on projects with unparalleled sample size.Public Significance StatementEating disorders are debilitating and costly for society but are under‐researched due to underfunding. EDGI UK is one of the largest eating disorder studies worldwide with ongoing recruitment. The collected data constitute a resource for secondary analysis. We will combine data from all international EDGI branches and the NIHR BioResource to facilitate research that improves our understanding of eating disorders and their comorbidities.

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Risk and protective factors for new‐onset binge eating, low weight, and self‐harm symptoms in >35,000 individuals in the UK during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Cited by 19 publications

References 74 publications

Trends in weight gain recorded in English primary care before and during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform

Trends in weight gain recorded in English primary care before and during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform

Shifting age of child eating disorder hospitalizations during the Covid‐19 pandemic

The United Kingdom Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative

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