Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Obesity and Eating Behaviors

COVID-19 lockdown presents particular challenges for people living with obesity. Indeed during this period, the lifestyle was deeply modified: diet, activity, and sleep behaviours, home office, take care of child, social distancing... All of these modifications may have led to stress and anxiety. It has been previously demonstrated that high perceived stress levels are correlated with high preference for sweet and fat foods . In this context caution would be exercised in obese patients especially those with binge eating disorders. Indeed binge eating disorder is characterized by compulsive overeating or consuming abnormal amounts of food while feeling unable to stop and a loss of control. And one key trigger of binge eating disorder is stress and anxiety. Thus, patients with binge eating disorders may have been more sensitive to the impact of lockdown and thus urgently would require appropriated care management.

The main objective is to compare the eating behaviour between obese patients with or without binge eating disorders. The second objective is to compare the weight evolution between the two groups before and after the lockdown.

To reach these objectives, the scientific team of the CIO project proposes to contact by phone and e-mail obese patients (with or without binge eating disorders) who have been hospitalized for their obesity disease before the start of the lockdown in the Endocrinology department of the Lyon Hospital. The patients will be asked to fill in several questionnaires (using an online tool) allowing to evaluate their mood, anxiety, eating behaviour, binge eating disorders… during the lockdown. The results of these questionnaires will be compared to those collected during their hospitalisation before the lockdown.

The hypothesis is that participants suffering from binge eating disorder will have more sever eating behaviour perturbations as higher level of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms.