Do Age and Symptoms of Anxiety, Stress and Depression Predict Risk Behaviors for Eating Disorders in Brazilian Men and Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic? [post]

José Roberto Andrade do Nascimento Junior, Gabriel Lucas Morais Freire, Mariana Pereira Gonçalves, Daniel Vicentini de Oliveira, José Fernando Vila Nova de Moraes, Yara Lucy Fidelix
2020 unpublished
ObjectiveThis study investigated the predicting role of age and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress on risk behavior for eating disorders in Brazilian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA web‐based cross‐sectional survey was administered during the COVID‐19 in Brazil. A total of 715 participants were recruited (237 men and 478 women) with a mean age of 29.20 (10.73) years from all regions of Brazil. The instruments used were the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21) and
more » ... ating attitudes test-26 (EAT-26). Data analysis was conducted through the independent t-test, Pearson's correlation and multiple regression Analysis (p<.05). ResultsThe data showed significant differences between men and women for anxiety (p<.001), stress (p<.001), depression (p<.001), total DASS score (p<.001) and eating disorders (p<.001), indicating that women presented more symptoms in all variables. Depression, stress and DASS total score were significantly and positively associated with eating disorders (EDs) (r range= .16 to .21) for men and EDs was significantly and negatively associated with all dimensions of DASS and DASS total score (r range -.19 to -.22) for women. Multiple regression showed that DASS total score made the largest positive contribution to eating disorders for men (β= .17, p <.01) and women (β= .22, p <.001). ConclusionOur findings show that symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress predict risk behavior for eating disorders in Brazilian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.
doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-100005/v1 fatcat:o3myac6dijbirnizhriky52y7i