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. 2023 Apr 26;49(1):50.
doi: 10.1186/s13052-023-01443-6.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating disorders risk and symptoms: a retrospective study

Elisabetta Straface #  1   2 , Isabella Tarissi De Jacobis #  3 , Teresa Capriati  4 , Italo Pretelli  5 , Annalisa Grandin  6 , Cristina Mascolo  7 , Rosa Vona  8 , Lucrezia Gambardella  8 , Camilla Cittadini  8 , Alberto Villani #  6 , Maria Rosaria Marchili #  6
Affiliations

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating disorders risk and symptoms: a retrospective study

Elisabetta Straface et al. Ital J Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Social distancing and quarantine imposed by the authority during the COVID-19 pandemic caused restrictions, which had a negative impact on eating behavior, especially among adolescents. We proposed a retrospective study aimed to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating disorders risk and symptoms.

Methods: In this study, a group of 127 pediatric patients (117 females and 10 males) with eating disorders admitted to the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital of Rome (Italy), in the period between August 2019 and April 2021, was analyzed. All patient data were collected from patients' electronic medical records.

Results: We found that 80.3% of patients were at the onset of eating disorders and that 26% of patients had familiarity for psychotic disorders. Often these patients had comorbidities and alterations in blood parameters such as leukocytopenia, neutropenia, hypovitaminosis and hormonal problems that could affect their future.

Conclusions: Our findings could provide a framework for developing clinical and educational interventions to mitigate the short- and long-term negative impact of the pandemic on adolescent future health.

Keywords: Comorbidity; Covid-19; Eating disorders; Pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A workflow chart of the study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Effects of antipsychotic treatment on body weight and BMI of EDs patients. In the histogram are shown the values of body weight and BMI after 1 and 3 months of treatments with antipsychotics. The values are expressed as delta percentage compared to T0. *p < 0.05
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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