Vaccaro Concetta M, Guarino Giulia, Conte Dario, Ferrara Emanuela, Ragione Laura Dalla, Bracale Renata
Fondazione Censis, Health and Welfare Department, Piazza di Novella, 2, Rome, Italy.
Department of Medicine and Sciences for Health, Molise University, Campobasso, Italy.
Open Med (Wars). 2021 Aug 24;16(1):1170-1174. doi: 10.1515/med-2021-0291. eCollection 2021.
The purpose of this study is to assess the increase both in the use of the Internet and social media and in Google searches regarding eating disorders (ED) in Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our aim is also to verify the possible impact of such an increase on ED, since patients treated for ED by the National Health Service (NHS) have increased in the first 6 months of 2020 as well.
We used data from Wearesocial surveys on Internet users in the first 6 months of 2020 and the Google searches related to the query of "food disorders" and "body shaming." The first results of a project of the Italian Ministry of Health on ED have been considered too.
The social media users in July 2020 increased to 60% of the Italian population; a tendential increase in Google searches on these issues has emerged. Finally, new patients of NHS with ED showed a high increase in the first 6 months of 2020 (+40.9%).
Considering the contents diffused on the Internet, it is fundamental to watch over net usage in the adolescent population and those with ED, because massive access to social media can be considered almost as a risk factor.
本研究旨在评估在新冠疫情期间意大利互联网和社交媒体使用情况以及谷歌上有关饮食失调（ED）搜索量的增长。我们的目标还包括验证这种增长对饮食失调可能产生的影响，因为在2020年的前6个月，由国家医疗服务体系（NHS）治疗的饮食失调患者数量也有所增加。
我们使用了2020年前6个月来自Wearesocial对互联网用户的调查数据以及与“饮食失调”和“身材羞辱”相关的谷歌搜索数据。意大利卫生部关于饮食失调项目的初步结果也被纳入考量。
2020年7月社交媒体用户增加到意大利人口的60%；在这些问题上谷歌搜索量呈上升趋势。最后，2020年前6个月，国家医疗服务体系的饮食失调新患者数量大幅增加（增长40.9%）。
考虑到互联网上传播的内容，密切关注青少年人群和饮食失调患者的网络使用情况至关重要，因为大量使用社交媒体几乎可被视为一个风险因素。
