Health habits during lockdown for COVID-19 in Spain and its effect on weight.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: a deterioration of health habits has been found in various studies caused by stressful situations such as mandatory and maintained confinement over time. This study aims to analyze the health habits of the Spanish adult population during confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the possible impact on their body weight. METHOD: two thousand eight hundred and thirty-four volunteer subjects participated in the study (69.3 % women). They completed an on-line questionnaire that evaluated their health habits, as well as various sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: the results show a statistically significant link between the subjects' body mass index (BMI) and the change in their weight during lockdown (2: 79.303; p: < 0.001). Besides, a statisti-cally significant relationship between the different health habits under analysis was also found, being moderate with respect to the link between eating habits and physical activity (Cramer's V: .226). A statistically significant relationship was also found between the participants' weight and the different health habits during lockdown. The effect size of the associations was moderate in relation to the participants' eating habits (Cramer's V: .409) and physical activity (Cramer's V: .292). CONCLUSIONS: it is suggested the development of prevention programs for long lockdown periods associated with high levels of stress so as to promote a healthy diet, as well as exercise using new technologies and a proper rest, especially in overweight or obese subjects.

Obesity Bias in the School Setting: A Brief Report.

Obesity bias is one of the main psychosocial consequences experienced by people who are overweight and people with obesity. Therefore, its study, especially during childhood, has become an emerging objective. The aim of this study is to examine obesity bias in children in the school setting. In total, 171 primary school students (Mean age: 10.68; SD: 0.63) from a school in Madrid (Spain) filled out a survey in which they indicated whether they would choose a classmate with obesity with whom they would carry out academic, social, and leisure activities. The rejection ratios of peers with obesity and other personal characteristics such as gender, nationality, or ethnicity were compared. The results indicate that more than half of the participants would not choose a partner with obesity to carry out any of the three activities suggested, and that obesity was the personal characteristic that elicited the highest rate of rejection, especially among females. The possible explanations for these findings are discussed, as well as why the school setting should be a nonaggressive but protective environment for children with obesity.

A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study of the Consequences of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Women's Health Behaviors in Spain.

Changes in health habits were observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. An unequal distribution of responsibilities may have generated unequal levels of stress in men and women, and, therefore, this may have led to different impacts on their health habits during lockdown. This study aimed to analyze the changes in eating habits, physical activity, sleep, and body weight in women, compared to men, because of lockdown. A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out. 2834 Spanish volunteers aged 19 to 76 completed an online survey on health habits. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed using a cross-sectional methodology to explore gender differences. Results showed that men maintained their health habits to a greater extent, performing the same physical activity, while maintaining the quantity and quality of sleep, the quality of the diet, the quantity of the intake, and their mealtimes and body weight, whereas women's eating habits changed in relation to the quality of their diet and mealtimes, as their food intake and weight increased, and their sleep was poorer in quality and duration than it was before lockdown. This could be due to the higher levels of anxiety experienced by women as a result of working on essential jobs in addition to taking on more unpaid work associated with care and housework.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for an Adolescent with Anorexia Nervosa.

INTRODUCTION: The treatment of anorexia nervosa remains a matter of much debate. Though cognitive behavioural therapy would seem to offer good results, there is still no resounding evidence pointing to a single treatment of choice. The case presented in this paper examines the treatment with CBT of a patient presenting anorexia nervosa. Evaluation/diagnosis: An adolescent girl, 17 years of age, voluntarily attends psychological therapy to address eating behaviour problems. After administering the EAT-26, EDI-2, and BSQ standardised screening tests, as well as a clinical interview for assessment, a psychopathological profile is obtained, providing a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, restricting subtype. Therapeutic goals: The therapeutic goals set were to reach a healthy weight for the patient's age and height (specified as a minimum BMI of 18.5) and change the structure of thoughts, feelings, and behaviour that was justifying and maintaining the disorder. TREATMENT: Treatment lasted for 33 sessions and used cognitive behavioural techniques, such as cognitive restructuring, response cost, and positive reinforcement, in addition to family intervention techniques. Nutrition therapy was also carried out in parallel to the treatment sessions. RESULTS: Following eight months of weekly sessions, the patient reached the target weight and changed attitudes towards food and body image, replacing them with healthy thoughts and behaviours. Follow-up made one and two years after the end of the treatment saw that these results were maintained. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: In this case, CBT proved effective in achieving the patient's physical and psychological recovery. Therefore, this case contributes to the evidence of the efficacy of this therapeutic approach in certain cases of ED.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Eating Disorders and Obesity in Children and Adolescents.

In this Special Issue of Children, we can find several articles that present the results of various current investigations in the field of eating disorders and obesity in children and adolescents [...].

Linking Psychosocial Stress Events, Psychological Disorders and Childhood Obesity.

There is scientific evidence that supports a strong association between early exposure to stressful life events and the presence of health complications throughout adulthood and, to a lesser extent, in adolescence and childhood. The aim of this study was to examine the accumulation of Psychosocial Stress Events (PSE) and the prevalence of mental disorders in children from 8 to 12 years. The association between these factors and child weight measurements was analysed. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 children classified by weight status (obesity, overweight and normal-weight). The assessment was carried out in primary care centres and primary schools. An experienced team carried out a structured medical-psychosocial history and a semi-structured interview aimed at identifying an early diagnosis of psychological disorders. Children filled out a questionnaire to evaluate PSE. The obesity group presented the greatest accumulation of PSE and highest prevalence of psychiatric diagnosis, compared to overweight and normal-weight children. To exceed four or more stressful events was positively associated with psychological problems and child body mass index (BMI z-score). A predictive model confirmed the interaction between a larger number of PSE and the occurrence of a psychiatric diagnosis as variables that predispose children by 26.2 times more to increased weight status. In conclusion, the accumulation of PSE in the family, school and social environments of the children was related to greater psychological distress. If not managed, the likelihood of suffering from other health complications, such as excess weight, may increase. It is important to monitor these variables to ensure positive health outcomes while specifically addressing childhood obesity. This is especially relevant for children from a disadvantaged social background and disharmonious family environments.

Mediating Factors between Childhood Traumatic Experiences and Eating Disorders Development: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Many people with eating disorders often report having suffered some kind of childhood trauma. For this reason, many studies have attempted to explore the mediating factors between traumatic experiences and the development of eating disorders. The aim of our study is to conduct a systematic review of published works on the mediating factors between childhood trauma and the development of eating disorders. METHOD: This review was carried out up to 5 December, 2020, using the databases PsycInfo and PubMed, combining the keywords, and applying a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. RESULTS: A total of 18 articles were retrieved. After the articles were analyzed, a set of mediating factors between childhood trauma and the development of eating disorders was established, including pathological dissociation, difficulty with emotion self-regulation, body dissatisfaction, negative affect/depression, anxiety, general distress, self-criticism, and alexithymia, among others. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to evaluating trauma in eating disorders, these results highlight the importance of paying special attention to the presence of various possible mediating factors, which must be taken into account in the planning of therapeutic treatment. Identifying symptoms of trauma or eating disorders early on could prevent onset of more severe psychopathology during adulthood.

Child Trauma Experiences and Dissociative Symptoms in Women with Eating Disorders: Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND: many people with different diagnoses, including eating disorders, have suffered traumatic experiences in childhood. METHOD: a case-control study was performed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of child trauma and dissociative symptoms in people with eating disorders and compare the results obtained with a control group. Participants were administered the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and the Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorders (SCID-II) to confirm diagnostic criteria and explore possible comorbidities. Traumatic experiences in childhood were evaluated with the Child Trauma Questionnaire in its abbreviated version (CTQ-SF), psychoform dissociation was measured with the Scale of Dissociative Experiences (DES-II) and somatoform dissociation with the Somatoform Dissociation Scale (SDQ-20). RESULTS: women with eating disorders reported a greater severity and higher prevalence of child trauma than the control group. Significant differences were found by groups in dissociative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: our results, in a Spanish sample, confirm the findings of previous studies.

¿Por qué no somos eficaces en el tratamiento de la obesidad? La necesaria aportación de la psicología / Why we are not we effective in the treatment of obesity? The necessary contribution of psychology

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El trastorno por atracón: análisis y tratamientos / Binge eating disorder: analysis and treatment

Resumen El trastorno por atracón es reconocido formalmente en el DSM-5 (APA, 2014) como trastorno de la conducta alimentaria y de ingestión de alimentos, siendo considerado el más frecuente en población obesa, e incrementando su presencia rápidamente frente al resto en población general. Su crecimiento de forma alarmante y por delante de la bulimia y la anorexia nerviosa, llevan a considerarlo un problema de salud de gran prevalencia a comienzos del siglo XXI. Esta revisión estudia su conceptualización, así como los tratamientos psicológicos más eficaces en cuanto a su abordaje terapéutico, teniendo presente en este sentido, que la perspectiva cognitivo-conductual parece ser la alternativa más completa e integradora, sobre la cual se cimenta su adecuado manejo. Un aspecto a destacar en esta revisión es la importancia que tiene en su origen, desarrollo y mantenimiento, la dificultad de un procesamiento emocional por parte del sujeto, que ya ha sido asociada a los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria y de ingestión de alimentos con anterioridad.

Abstract Binge eating disorder (BED), was formally recognized in the DSM-5 (APA, 2014) as an eating disorder, and considered the most common eating disorder among obese people, which embraces significant part of the whole population. Its dramatic raise above bulimia and anorexia nervosa, which are binge eating disorder alarming signals, made researchers in this field consider this health problem as extremely serious at the beginning of the XXI century. This review takes the issue of conceptualization as well as the most effective psychological treatments into consideration having in mind that the cognitive-behavioral approach seems to be the most complete and comprehensive choice which builds up the basis for adequate treatment. The most serious difficulty to be highlighted in this review is the origin, development and maintenance of reluctance patients' within the emotional processing, which has been associated to binge eating disorder previously.

¿Es válido el uso del Índice de Masa Corporal para evaluar la obesidad en personas musculosas? / Is it useful to use the Body Mass Index to assess obesity in muscular people?

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Propiedades psicométricas de una adaptación española de la Escala de Interiorización de Prejuicios sobre la Obesidad (WBIS) / Psychometric properties of a Spanish adaptation of the weight bias internalization scale (wbis)

Introducción: la obesidad es uno de los problemas de salud más importantes en la actualidad a nivel internacional, y el estudio de los diferentes aspectos relacionados con ella se ha convertido en un objetivo prioritario. Uno de dichos aspectos es el análisis de la interiorización de prejuicios sobre la obesidad, especialmente su evaluación, para lo cual se han diseñado diferentes instrumentos, no disponibles para la población española. Objetivos: el objetivo de este estudio es la traducción y adaptación de la Escala de Interiorización de Prejuicios sobre Obesidad (WBIS), analizando sus características psicométricas. Métodos: cincuenta y nueve personas fueron evaluadas mediante una adaptación española del WBIS, el Inventario de Depresión de Beck (BDI) en versión breve, y el Cuestionario de Salud General de Goldberg (GHQ-28). Se exploró la consistencia interna, así como la validez concurrente y de constructo del instrumento adaptado. Resultados: el coeficiente alfa de Cronbach fue de .89, mientras que la validez concurrente evidenció correlaciones estadísticamente significativas con la puntuación global del GHQ-28 (r = .39, p < .02) y del BDI (r = .42, p < .001). La escala definitiva estaba compuesta por 11 ítems, que se agruparon en dos factores principales, que permitieron explicar significativamente el 65.03% de la varianza. Conclusiones: la versión adaptada al español del WBIS muestra adecuados valores psicométricos de fiabilidad y validez, por lo que podría ser una buena escala para la evaluación de la interiorización de los prejuicios sobre obesidad, lo que podría confirmarse en estudios más amplios (AU)

Introduction: obesity is currently one of the most important international health problems, and the study of the various aspects related to it has become a priority. One such aspect is the analysis of the weight bias internalization, especially its evaluation, for which different instruments hare been designed, though they are not available for Spanish population. Objectives: the objective of this study is the translation and adaptation of the Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS), analyzing its psychometric characteristics. Methodology: fifty-nine people were evaluated by a Spanish adaptation of WBIS, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in short version, and the General Health Questionnaire Goldberg (GHQ-28). Internal consistency was explored, as well as concurrent and construct validity of the adapted instrument. Results: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .89, while the concurrent validity showed statistically significant correlations with the total score of GHQ-28 (r = .39, p < .02) and the BDI (r = .42, p < .001). The final scale consists of 11 items, which are grouped into two main factors, and allow a significant explanation of 65.03% of the variance. Conclusions: the Spanish adaptation of the WBIS shows good psychometric values of reliability and validity, so it might be a good scale for the assessment of the weight bias internalization, which could be confirmed in larger studies (AU)