Increased COVID-19 Lockdown Burden in Italian Adults with Gastrointestinal Diseases

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes not only severe illness but also detrimental effects associated with the lockdown measures. The present study aimed to evaluate reported lifestyle changes in a cohort of adults in Italy, including physical exercise, food choices, and psychological wellbeing, after two months of lockdown.

A web survey on social media (Facebook and LinkedIn) of 32 multiple-choice questions aiming to evaluate the impact of the national COVID-19 lockdown in a sample of Italian adults.

We received 1378 complete responses (women 68.3%, mean age 39.5 ± 12.5 years). The percentage of participants reporting regular exercise decreased during lockdown (52 vs. 56.5%). The vast majority of people continued to consume the three traditional meals per day, but the consumption of meat, fish, and eggs significantly decreased. Women reported more frequent anxiety, sadness, fear, and feelings of insecurity than men. The factors predicting the worst outcome during the lockdown were being a woman, low education and income, gastrointestinal diseases.

The lockdown has had a limited impact on food choices and physical exercise in Italian adults of our series, since most of them made an effort to improve their lifestyle. However, women with gastrointestinal diseases reported more frequent negative feelings and poor adaptation to the lockdown.