The Perceived Impact of COVID-19 on Comfort Food Consumption over Time: The Mediational Role of Emotional Distress

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on populations at an economic, health, and on an interpersonal level, it is still unclear how it has affected health-risk behaviors, such as comfort food consumption over time. This study longitudinally examines the effect of the perceived impact of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nutrients Vol. 13; no. 6; p. 1910
Main Authors: Salazar-Fernández, Camila, Palet, Daniela, Haeger, Paola A., Román Mella, Francisca
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 02.06.2021
MDPI
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Anxiety
Colleges & universities
Coping
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - psychology
COVID-19 infection
Diet - psychology
Disease transmission
distress
Eating behavior
Emotions
equations
Faculty
Feeding Behavior - psychology
Female
Food
Food consumption
Health aspects
Health Behavior
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Mediation
Mental health
Middle Aged
Pandemics
Perception
Psychological Distress
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Stress
Stress, Psychological - diet therapy
Stress, Psychological - etiology
Structural equation modeling
Students
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Universities
Young Adult
COVID-19 pandemic
longitudinal
structural equation modeling
psychological distress
emotional eating
ISSN:2072-6643, 2072-6643
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on populations at an economic, health, and on an interpersonal level, it is still unclear how it has affected health-risk behaviors, such as comfort food consumption over time. This study longitudinally examines the effect of the perceived impact of COVID-19 on comfort food consumption and whether this effect is mediated by emotional distress. A convenience sample of 1048 students and university staff (academic and non-academic) from two universities completed monthly online surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic across six waves (W; W1 to W6). Participants reported their perceived impact of COVID-19 (economic, interpersonal, and health), comfort food consumption, and emotional distress (DASS-21). Using structural equation models, we found an indirect longitudinal effect of the perceived impact of COVID-19 (W1) on comfort food consumption (W3 to W6) through increased emotional distress (W2). The perceived negative impact of COVID-19 on comfort food consumption was fully mediated by the emotional distress during the first waves (W3 and W4), ending in a partial mediation in the last waves (W5 and W6). These findings contribute to disentangling the mechanisms by which the perceived impact of COVID-19 affects comfort food consumption over time, and highlight the role of emotional distress. Future interventions should address comfort food consumption by focusing on handling emotional distress during a crisis.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:2072-6643
2072-6643
DOI:10.3390/nu13061910