Eating disorder and anxiety during Covid19 pandemic: the Maghrebian experience

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus pandemic is considered the worst-hit that the world had witnessed in the current century. The impact of the pandemic, especially during the lockdown, was not only diverse but also worldwide. The African continent, including the Maghreb, was no exception. The aim of this study was to assess the levels of anxiety and eating behaviors and their correlations in three Maghrebian countries following the official outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic. It is a cross-sectional study of 754 participants from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. It took place between 30 April and 2 July 2020. The survey showed that eating disorders represented 45.9% of the sample while 26.8% (202 participants) matched the anxiety criteria. Statistical significant factors for eating disorders were gender (p = 0.002; OR = 1.760), underweight (p = 0.021; OR = 0.306), anxiety (p = 0.001; OR = 0.470), bulimia (p = 0.000; OR = 0.794) and body dissatisfaction (p = 0.000; OR = 0.920). This rise goes along with other surveys in different parts of the world. These results can be explained by multiple reasons such as the ‘food insecurity’ mechanism, the excessive feeling of boredom and loneliness resulting from social distancing and the overwhelming overthinking about the onset of a serious economic crisis.