De Pasquale Concetta, Sciacca Federica, Conti Daniela, Pistorio Maria Luisa, Hichy Zira, Cardullo Rosa Loredana, Di Nuovo Santo
Vascular Surgery and Organ Transplant Unit, Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
Vascular Surgery and Medical-Surgical Specialties, Department of Educational Sciences, University Hospital of Catania, Catania, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2021 Jul 21;12:684195. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684195. eCollection 2021.
The fear of contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic has been indicated as a relevant cause of psychological pathologies occurring in this period. Food represents a compensating experience, distracting from the experiences of uncertainty, fear and despair, causing alterations in eating habits and behaviors. The study aims at evaluating the relations between fear of a pandemic, mood states and eating disorders in Italian college students, taking into account gender differences. During the lockdown for the pandemic, a sample of 469 college students equally distributed by gender, was recruited online using a questionnaire including the FCV-19S for the assessment of fear of COVID-19, the profile of mood states (POMS) for the evaluation of different emotional states, the eating disorder inventory-2 (EDI-2) and the binge eating scale (BES) to evaluate the presence of the levels of eating disorders. As expected, all emotive states measured by POMS (tension, depression, anger, tiredness, confusion) resulted significantly correlated with the fear of COVID-19. Women were more exposed to fear of COVID-19 showing greater tension, fatigue, depression and confusion, and a significantly higher total mood disturbance score than males. Regarding the EDI-2 and BES variables, tension and anxiety resulted significantly correlated also with bulimic behavior, while depression with interoceptive awareness, impulsivity, and binge eating behaviors, without gender differences. In conclusion, the negative impact of the fear of COVID-19 on the emotional profile and eating behavior suggests the need to implement strategies against psychological distress during the pandemic emergency, and to design psycho-educational interventions aimed at modifying the lifestyle for preventing risks of mental disorders fostering health-oriented behaviors.
在新冠疫情期间，对感染的恐惧被认为是这段时期出现心理疾病的一个相关原因。食物代表了一种补偿性体验，能让人从不确定性、恐惧和绝望的体验中转移注意力，导致饮食习惯和行为发生改变。本研究旨在评估意大利大学生对疫情的恐惧、情绪状态和饮食失调之间的关系，并考虑性别差异。在疫情封锁期间，通过在线方式招募了469名大学生样本，男女比例均等，使用一份问卷进行调查，该问卷包括用于评估对新冠病毒恐惧的FCV - 19S、用于评估不同情绪状态的情绪状态剖面图（POMS）、饮食失调量表 - 2（EDI - 2）和暴饮暴食量表（BES），以评估饮食失调水平的存在情况。正如预期的那样，POMS测量的所有情绪状态（紧张、抑郁、愤怒、疲劳、困惑）都与对新冠病毒的恐惧显著相关。女性更容易受到对新冠病毒恐惧的影响，表现出更大的紧张、疲劳、抑郁和困惑，并且总情绪困扰得分显著高于男性。关于EDI - 2和BES变量，紧张和焦虑也与暴食行为显著相关，而抑郁与内感受性觉知、冲动性和暴饮暴食行为相关，且无性别差异。总之，对新冠病毒的恐惧对情绪状况和饮食行为的负面影响表明，在疫情紧急情况下需要实施应对心理困扰的策略，并设计心理教育干预措施，旨在改变生活方式以预防精神障碍风险，促进以健康为导向的行为。
