Author, as appears in the article.: Papandreou, Christopher; Arija, Victoria; Aretouli, Eleni; Tsilidis, Konstantinos K.; Bullo, Monica;

Department: Bioquímica i Biotecnologia

URV's Author/s: Arija Val, Maria Victoria / Bulló Bonet, Mònica

Keywords: Version Questionnaire Eating behaviour Disorder Dietary restraint Depression Covid-19 Anxiety depression covid-19 anxiety

Abstract: Objective We compared eating behaviours, and depressive and anxiety symptoms in two countries with different confinement strictness strategies and different levels of COVID-19 pandemic. Method A web-based cross-sectional survey was administered during and shortly after the COVID-19 related lockdown in Spain and Greece. Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to identify country differences associated with eating behaviour, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Results This study included 1,002 responders in Spain and 839 in Greece. The mean +/- SD of restraint, emotional and external eating was 2.5 +/- 0.79, 2.1 +/- 0.81 and 2.6 +/- 0.65 in Spain, whereas 2.7 +/- 0.85, 2.3 +/- 0.99 and 2.9 +/- 0.74 in Greece. Spanish participants had lower average scores of restraint and external eating compared to Greek participants (p < .001), but no difference was seen for emotional eating. In Spain, 13.6%, and 12.3% of the survey respondents reported moderate to severe depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively, whereas in Greece the respective values were 18.8 and 13.2%. After adjusting for several risk factors, a higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms was observed in Spain compared to Greece (p= .001), but no difference was seen for depressive symptoms. Conclusions This study demonstrated high scores of inappropriate eating behaviours and a high frequency of depressive and anxiety symptoms in two Mediterranean countries during the COVID-19 outbreak. Our findings revealed that compared to Greek participants, Spanish participants, that faced more severe COVID-19 pandemic and stricter lockdown measures, were associated with lower restraint and external eating and increased anxiety symptoms, but not with depressive symptoms or emotional eating.

Thematic Areas: Psychology, clinical Psychology Psychiatry and mental health Psicología Odontología Medicina i General medicine Educação física Clinical psychology Ciencias sociales Biotecnología

licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

ISSN: 10724133

Author's mail: victoria.arija@urv.cat monica.bullo@urv.cat

Author identifier: 0000-0002-1758-0975 0000-0002-0218-7046

Record's date: 2023-02-19

Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Link to the original source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/erv.2772

Licence document URL: http://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/

Papper original source: European Eating Disorders Review. 28 (6): 836-846

APA: Papandreou, Christopher; Arija, Victoria; Aretouli, Eleni; Tsilidis, Konstantinos K.; Bullo, Monica; (2020). Comparing eating behaviours, and symptoms of depression and anxiety between Spain and Greece during theCOVID-19 outbreak: Cross-sectional analysis of two different confinement strategies. European Eating Disorders Review, 28(6), 836-846. DOI: 10.1002/erv.2772

Article's DOI: 10.1002/erv.2772

Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Journal publication year: 2020

Publication Type: Journal Publications