[ad_1]
DALLAS – August 09, 2022 – In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 30% of obese patients gained more than 5% of their body weight, and 1 in 7 gained more than 10%. When diet and exercise habits are factors, people with high levels of stress, anxiety and depression report weight gain, UT Southwestern researchers found. It was reported in the magazine Excessive obesity.
Jaime Almandoz, MD
“The Covid-19 pandemic is a striking example of individual and social stress and has shown that changes in mental health can predispose people to a healthy body weight,” said the study’s author. Jaime Almandoz, MD, MBA, FTOSAssociate Professor of Internal Medicine at Department of Endocrinology at UT Southwestern.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 42% of American adults are obese, which increases the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many cancers.
As the epidemic unfolded, obesity clinics began to suspect that closures, social isolation, reduced access to health care, and changes in food availability were negatively impacting many of their patients.
In 2020, Dr. Almandoz and his colleagues at UT Southwestern Weight health program and the UT Health Center for Children’s Population Health are the first to publish the effects of stay-at-home orders on health behaviors and mental health in people with obesity. they reported Almost 70% of patients said that their weight loss goals were very difficult to achieve during the initial pandemic lockdown, half of them exercised and stocked up on food and 61% admitted that they were under dietary stress. Second study Increased rates of recreational drug and alcohol use in obese patients.
In the new paper, the team surveyed 404 people during the delta gap between March and November 2021. All participants had been seen for obesity treatment at one of three clinics in Dallas within the previous two years and had a body mass index (BMI). At least 30.
During the outbreak, respondents gained an average of 4.3% of their body weight. A third of people reported gaining more than 5%, with some people gaining more than 25% or up to 80 pounds. The reported stress and difficulty was surprising given the socioeconomic profile of the study population, Dr. Almandoz said, as nearly half had household incomes above $75,000 and 60% were college graduates.
“People who enroll in weight management programs typically lose weight,” Dr. Almandoz said. “If people with these differential levels are facing greater challenges during the pandemic, these stresses may be amplified in the general population.”
When the researchers looked at factors associated with weight gain, they found that people who ate or slept unhealthy and exercised less tended to gain more pounds. But mental health issues were also highly correlated: those who gained more reported higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Even when other factors were controlled for, poor mental health was still associated with weight gain.
“Our findings highlight the complexity of obesity; it’s not just about telling people to eat less and move more,” said Dr. Almandoz. There’s also an integrated mental health aspect to treating the whole person.
Dr. Almandoz hopes the new findings will help clinicians better screen their patients for mental health challenges when they see weight gain and refer patients to programs that integrate mental health treatment, such as the UT Southwestern Weight Wellness Program.
Other researchers involved in the study include Liu Xie, Jeffrey N. Schellinger, M. Sunil Mathew, Elisa Morales Marroquin, Natia Murvelashvili, Shreeya Khatiwada, Carrie McAdams and Sarah E. Messi, all of UTSW and the UT Health Sciences Center; and Sachin Kukreja at Associates in Minimally Invasive Surgery, Dallas.
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health Minority Health and Health Disparities Grants (R01MD011686-S1 and R01MD011686).
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
As one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, UT Southwestern integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institute’s faculty have received six Nobel Prizes and include 26 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. Its full-time faculty of more than 2,900 are responsible for the advancement of medicine and are committed to rapidly translating science-based research into new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties manage more than 100,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency department cases and nearly 4 million outpatient visits.
[ad_2]
Source link
