Farrell Emma, Hollmann Eva, Roux Carel Le, Nadglowski Joe, McGillicuddy Deirdre
School of Education, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland.
Diabetes Complications Research Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland.
EClinicalMedicine. 2022 Jul 18;51:101568. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101568. eCollection 2022 Sep.
People living with obesity are at elevated risk of hospitalisation, serious illness and mortality due to COVID-19. Little is known about their experience of living with obesity during the pandemic and its associated stay-at-home orders. This study sought to understand the experiences of people living with obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A stratified sample of Irish adults ( = 15) living with obesity engaged in open, phenomenological, interviews and a participatory photovoice methodology to capture both verbal and visual accounts of their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews, conducted throughout 2021, were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.
Two overarching themes were identified. A) The pandemic and associated stay-at-home orders had a positive impact on the health and well-being of some participants; a negative impact on others; and this impact changed over time as the pandemic progressed. B) People living with obesity reported feeling stigmatised and 'othered' by their 'at risk' categorisation. Public health messaging and public discourse relating to obesity resulted in some people feeling segregated and punished by society.
Changes in lifestyle initiated by the pandemic's stay-at-home orders had a varied impact on the health behaviours and outcomes of people with obesity. This variance offers helpful insight into the psychosocial aspects of obesity. Furthermore, the 'othering' effect of public health messaging during the pandemic warrants caution in light of the already stigmatised nature of this disease.
This study is part of the SOPHIA project which received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 875534.
肥胖者因新冠疫情住院、患重病及死亡的风险更高。对于他们在疫情期间及相关居家令下的肥胖生活体验，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在了解新冠疫情期间肥胖者的经历。
对15名爱尔兰肥胖成年患者进行分层抽样，采用开放式现象学访谈和参与式照片叙事法，以获取他们在新冠疫情期间经历的文字和视觉描述。2021年全年进行的访谈逐字转录并进行主题分析。
确定了两个总体主题。A）疫情及相关居家令对一些参与者的健康和幸福产生了积极影响；对另一些人则产生了负面影响；随着疫情的发展，这种影响随时间而变化。B）肥胖者表示，他们因“风险”分类而感到被污名化和“另类”。与肥胖相关的公共卫生信息和公共话语导致一些人感到被社会隔离和惩罚。
疫情居家令引发的生活方式变化对肥胖者的健康行为和结果产生了不同影响。这种差异有助于深入了解肥胖的社会心理方面。此外，鉴于这种疾病本身已带有污名化性质，疫情期间公共卫生信息的“另类化”影响值得谨慎对待。
本研究是SOPHIA项目的一部分，该项目由创新药物倡议2联合事业提供资金，资助协议编号为875534。
