The Problems Experienced by Employees with Chronic Disease during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Chronic diseases served as a silent global epidemic before the pandemic, and individuals living with chronic disease now form one of the groups most affected by COVID-19. This study aims to determine the problems that employees with chronic disease face during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the study, data were collected from 952 individuals who live with chronic disease in Turkey. Of these, 76.6% of respondents worked for the public sector, a large majority of whom (67.7%) have worked full time during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that the COVID-19 fear level of employees living with chronic disease was higher than moderate (21.061 ± 7.607). When the variables affecting the COVID-19 fear level are listed in order of relative significance, eating problems, residing in the Mediterranean region, having asthma, and working as a female employee made the greatest impact, respectively. Necessary conditions of work should be provided to those living with chronic disease who could adapt themselves to working flexibly or working from home, so that they would not feel isolated from business life. This group should be provided with essential protective equipment, their working conditions must be reviewed and vaccination priority could be given to them.

Effects of Anxiety, Depression, and Stress on Sleep Disorder and Night Eating Syndrome in Adolescents: Results of an Internet Survey

PurposeThe current study examined how sleep quality is related to night eating syndrome (NES) via the indirect effects of anxiety, depression, and stress to determine the mechanism of its development. MethodsThis cross-sectional web-based study included 171 adolescents aged 12-18 years (55.0% girls). Participants completed the self-report Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ), Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson’s disease (SCOPA) Sleep Scale, and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale–21 items (DASS-21). ResultsThe results showed that anxiety, depression, and stress directly influenced the NEQ. AMOS path analysis was used to examine whether these also had an indirect influence on the NEQ. Moreover, for the anxiety, depression, and stress subscales, only the anxiety subscale influenced nighttime eating problems due to increased sleep problems, which in turn increased the difficulty of morning sleepiness and falling asleep at night. ConclusionConsequently, depression and stress directly increased nighttime eating problems. Anxiety exacerbates eating problems, both directly and indirectly, through sleep. Behavioral and psychological interventions to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress may be helpful strategies for the treatment of night eating syndrome.Level of evidence: Level IV

Examining the Clinical Correlates of Overeating and Binge-Eating Behaviors Among U. S. Veterans

ABSTRACT Introduction Pressure to meet U.S. military weight requirements during service may predispose some service members to develop psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders or unhealthy eating behaviors, which may persist after military discharge. Specifically, research examining U.S. military veterans has found that in weight management programs, veterans with binge-eating behaviors have shown poor treatment outcomes. Overall, previous research suggests that veterans experience considerable and persistent disordered eating problems, and in addition may experience a higher prevalence of disordered eating in comparison to the general U.S. population. Research on Post-9/11 Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) veterans is needed as this group frequently presents with high rates of medical and psychiatric disorders. The current study used clinician-administered structured interviews to examine relationships between psychiatric, health, and demographic variables in a sample of Post-9/11 OEF/OIF/OND veterans with binge-eating or overeating behavior or neither. Materials and Methods This article presents secondary analyses of the baseline phase from data obtained for the Survey of the Experiences of Returning Veterans. Using structured phone interviews, we cross-sectionally examined patterns of medical comorbidities between sociodemographic, health, eating, and psychiatric variables in 846 recently deployed U.S. veterans with binge-eating behaviors (reporting both overeating and loss of control [LOC] eating), overeating behaviors (overeating without LOC), or healthy controls (absence of any disordered eating). Study procedures were approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Institutional Review Boards, and informed consent was obtained from the participants. A series of chi-square and analysis of variance tests revealed significant bivariate between-group differences in sociodemographic, health, eating, and psychiatric variables. Variables with significant group differences (P < .05) were entered into a multinomial logistic regression to examine relationships between psychiatric, health, and eating factors and binge-eating severity. Results Results of the multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that women relative to men were less likely to overeat. When comparing the binge-eating group and controls, higher body mass index was associated with higher odds of binge eating. Furthermore, for the overeating group in comparison to controls, fasting behavior was associated with higher odds of overeating. For the psychiatric variables, the binge-eating and overeating groups were associated with higher rates of compulsive buying when compared to healthy controls. Additionally, the overeating group was associated with higher rates of alcohol dependence. Lastly, binge-eating and overeating behaviors were positively associated with specific psychiatric and health comorbidities. Conclusions Further research is needed to inform the development of effective treatments for disordered eating problems, as evidenced by an anticipated increase of veterans entering the VA healthcare system and the high rate of binge eating observed in our study and prior research in Post-9/11 veterans. Moreover, our study findings suggest the relevance of screening veterans for compulsive buying. This study was limited by its relatively small sample which only examined disordered eating behaviors. Future studies could simultaneously explore binge-eating behaviors and binge-eating disorder diagnoses in larger samples. Study strengths include a diverse sample of Post-9/11 veterans with sizable female representation.

Understanding Anorexia and Eating Capability of Older Adults in Attempt to Prevent Malnutrition

Because of the rise of life expectancy, the older adults are now a big part of world’s population. In United States, prevalence of adults aged more than 65 years old increased from 36.6 million in 2005 to 47.8 million in 2015. In Indonesia, percentage of older adults increased two-fold from 1971 – 2019 as much as 9,6% or more than 25 million people. Along with this aging population, eating problems and malnutrition are getting more frequent. Aging causes several changes and degradation of body function which physiologically lead to anorexia and eating difficulty in older adults. Moreover, the other age-related factors such as social factor, economic factor, psychological factor, diseases and polypharmacy also have significant impact on food intake in older adults. Prevalence of inadequate energy intake and malnutrition in older adults are increasing, which lead them to become susceptible to acute and chronic diseases or worsening of their disease, increase hospitalization, and increase mortality rate. Even so, the signs of malnutrition of older adults are often late to be recognized, whereas the recovery of malnutrition in older adults is much more complicating than in younger adults. This review discusses about problems encountered by older adults that decrease their intake and cause malnutrition, to help clinicians recognize the cause of malnutrition in older adults earlier.

Nutrition Management in COVID-19 Quarantine: Hospital-Based Study

ABSTRACT Background: This hospital-based study aimed to evaluate the nutritional status and dietary habits for COVID-19 patients, the amount of nutrients provided to the patients in the hospital and to detect the predictors of severity among COVID-19 patients in Jordan. Methods: A hospital-based study (N = 367, mean age 42.3, SD 15.4, 66.0% men) was conducted between March 17th and July 25th, 2020 in Prince Hamza Hospital. Data about socio-demographic, anthropometric, dietary habits, and macro-and micronutrient were collected from the patients’ medical files and some missing data were collected by phone directly from the patients. Results: The results of the linear regression only age was significantly and positively (ß=0.454, p-value=0.001) associated with severity of the disease among the study patients. Around 57% of the COVID-19 patients consumed three meals daily, while around 31-34% consumed one to two snacks daily. The majority (64%) of the patients drank more than five cups of water daily. About 24% of the patients complained of eating problems such as taste and/or smell loss, low appetite, and swallowing difficulty. The intakes of the vitamins B1, B2, B3, and B6 and vitamin C, as well as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium and sodium, were within the recommended dietary allowances (RDA). Conclusion: The servings of the five food groups as well as most of the macro-and micronutrient requirements were within the recommended intakes and RDA.

Categories or dimensions? Towards a transdiagnostic treatment of eating psychopathology / ¿Categorías o dimensiones? Hacia un tratamiento transdiagnóstico de la psicopatología alimentaria

The purpose of this research was to contrast the categorial and dimensional approaches within the eating disorders area. Research on the eating problems categorical model reveals vast evidence against its validity: excessive comorbidity, inadequate coverage, diagnostic migration, residual categories, false positives and negatives, etc. The dimensional conceptualization of the eating psychopathology study would achieve more accurate findings by considering eating problems according to the degree in which they manifest, avoiding diagnostics based on arbitrary cut-off points and facilitating the analysis of eating psychopathology at early age, as well as following symptom evolution throughout development. Based on the dimensional model, transdiagnostic perspective has received empirical support, which endorses the use of the transdiagnostic treatment aimed to underlying psychological mechanisms, such as negative affect and emotional dysregulation.ResumenEl propósito de la presente investigación fue contrastar los enfoques categorial y dimensional dentro del área de los trastornos alimentarios. La investigación sobre el modelo categorial de los problemas alimentarios revela un amplio cúmulo de pruebas en contra de su validez, como comorbilidad excesiva, cobertura inadecuada, migración diagnóstica, categorías residuales, falsos positivos y negativos, etc. El estudio de la psicopatología alimentaria desde una conceptuación dimensional permitiría obtener hallazgos más precisos, al considerar a los problemas alimentarios según el grado en el que se presentan, evitar diagnósticos basados en puntos de corte arbitrarios, facilitar su análisis a edad temprana, así como seguir la evolución de los síntomas a lo largo del desarrollo. Apoyada en el modelo dimensional, la perspectiva transdiagnóstica ha recibido respaldo empírico que fundamenta su uso en el tratamiento de los mecanismos psicológicos subyacentes a las problemáticas alimentarias, como el afecto negativo y la desregulación emocional.

COVID-19 and Eating Problems in Daily Life: The Mediating Roles of Stress, Negative Affect and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

Background The COVID-19 pandemic poses a challenge to individuals' mental health. People worldwide are experiencing increased stress, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, which may lead to eating problems. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the perceived severity of COVID-19 on eating problems and the mediating effects of stress/negative affect/posttraumatic stress symptoms both at the personal level and interpersonal level. Methods: During the COVID-19 outbreak, a total of 108 college students were recruited to report their perceived severity of COVID-19, stress, negative affect, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and eating problems three times a day for seven consecutive days using Ecological Momentary Assessment. Results: State perceived severity of COVID-19 predicted fewer subsequent eating problems in daily life at the personal level. Both state negative affect and posttraumatic stress symptoms were positively associated with eating problems in daily life. At the interpersonal level, trait-like perceived severity of COVID-19, stress, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress symptoms were positively associated with overall eating problems. There were no mediating effects of stress/negative affect/posttraumatic stress symptoms on the relations between perceived severity of COVID-19 and eating problems at the personal/interpersonal level. Conclusions: The perceived severity of COVID-19, stress, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress symptoms might increase the risk of eating problems.

Alexithymia and Body Image in Saudi Arabian Females (University Students): Preliminary Data

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Alexithymia has been the focus of much recent research in relation to emotional regulation and eating problems amongst psychological disorders. It is dealing with difficulties in processing, expressing, and awareness of emotion. Body image has also been researched, especially amongst women, and its relation emotion. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> The aim of this exploratory study is to examine the presence of alexithymia and how this is related to body image amongst a group of female Saudi University students. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> 152 Arabic female students from a local University participated in the study. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20 Arabic), the Therapeutic Alexithymia scale (PTA Scale) short scale, body image scale, and figure body image scale were all used in the study. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The results showed that there is significant correlation between TAS and body image scale. Further, results showed that body image scale is best predictor of alexithymia in regression analysis. <b><i>Discussion:</i></b> Alexithymia has not been studied in university students in KSA. We also explored its relationship to body image and found there is a significant correlation. Alexithymia is present and needs much research in this sample and beyond, in both clinical and non-clinical groups. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> This is the first study in an Arabic population to show the alexithymia is prevalent amongst this sample and it is significantly related to poor body image. Further studies are suggested to explore further psychological variables related to body image and eating problems, as well as on clinical samples is indicated.

Eating Problems in Autistic Females and Males: A Co-twin Control Study

This study investigated the association between autism and self-reported eating problems and the influence of gender on the association, in a sample of adolescent and adult twins (N = 192). Autistic traits and autism diagnosis were associated with both total and specific eating problems, including selective eating and sensory sensitivity during mealtimes. Interaction effects indicated a stronger association between autistic traits and total eating problems in females, as well as more difficulties with eating in social contexts among autistic females. In within-pair analyses, where unmeasured confounders including genes and shared environment are implicitly controlled for, the association was lost within monozygotic pairs, which might further indicate a genetic influence on the relationship between autism and eating problems.