Status of Weight Change, Lifestyle Behaviors, Depression, Anxiety, and Diabetes Mellitus in a Cohort with Obesity during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Turk-Com Study Group

• Published in: Obesity facts 2022-08, Vol.15 (4), p.528-539
• Main Authors: Yazıcı, Dilek, Fersahoğlu, Mehmet Mahir, Fersahoğlu, Tuba, Bulut, Nuriye Esen, Çiğiltepe, Hüseyin, Çeler, Özgen, Sancak, Seda, Sulu, Cem, Durcan, Emre, Şahin, Serdar, Polat Korkmaz, Özge, Bozdoğan Polat, Sıla Hidayet, Taşkın, Eren, İşeri, Ceren, Gürsoy, Evren, Küçük Yetgin, Meral, Kaya, Tuğba, Özdemir, Feyza, Mestanoğlu İstanbullu, Naime, Kıyıcı, Sinem, Öztürk, Serkan, Güngör, Kağan, Can, Bülent, Sargın, Mehmet, Tabak, Zeynep, Averi, Sevda, Nazlı, Aysun, Polat, Yeliz, Akbas, Feray, Tekin, Sakin, Topaloğlu, Ömercan, Boz Uzaldı, Ebru, Çatalçam, Safiye, Bayraktaroğlu, Taner, Çalıkoğlu, Bedia Fulya, Nasifova, Vefa, Soyluk Selçukbiricik, Özlem, Karşıdağ, Kubilay, Sezer, Havva, Özışık, Seçil, Bulut, Hande, Bekdemir, Bahar, Deyneli, Oğuzhan, Dinçer, Ceyda, Gogas Yavuz, Dilek, İlkova, Hasan, Yumuk, Volkan Demirhan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Bakeries; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Diabetes; Disease transmission; Eating behavior; Exercise; Food; Glucose; Hospitals; Lifestyles; Mental depression; Metabolism; Nutrition; Obesity; Pandemics; Physical fitness; Physicians; Questionnaires; Research Article; Shelter in place; Sociodemographics; Statistical analysis; Stress; Weight control
• ISSN: 1662-4025; 1662-4033
• DOI: 10.1159/000522658

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a lockdown period. Confinement periods have been related to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. Our study aimed to determine weight change, changes in eating and exercise habits, the presence of depression and anxiety, and diabetes mellitus (DM) status in a cohort of patients with obesity. Methods: The study was undertaken in nine centers of Collaborative Obesity Management (COM) of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) in Turkey. An e-survey about weight change, eating habits, physical activity status, DM status, depression, and anxiety was completed by patients. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) score was used to determine physical activity in terms of metabolic equivalents (METs). A healthy nutrition coefficient was calculated from the different categories of food consumption. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Questionnaire  were used for determining depression and anxiety, respectively. Results: Four hundred twenty-two patients (age 45 ± 12.7 years, W/M = 350/72) were included. The healthy nutrition coefficient before the pandemic was 38.9 ± 6.2 and decreased to 38.1 ± 6.4 during the pandemic (p < 0.001). Two hundred twenty-nine (54.8%) patients gained weight, 54 (12.9%) were weight neutral, and 135 (32.3%) lost weight. Patients in the weight loss group had higher MET scores and higher healthy nutrition coefficients compared with the weight gain and weight-neutral groups (p < 0.001). The PHQ and GAD scores were not different between the groups. Percent weight loss was related to healthy nutrition coefficient (CI: 0.884 [0.821–0.951], p = 0.001) and MET categories (CI: 0.408 [0.222–0.748], p = 0.004). One hundred seventy patients had DM. Considering glycemic control, only 12 (8.4%) had fasting blood glucose