Association Between Dietary Behaviors and Weight Gain During City-Wide Quarantine

The impact of quarantine-induced changes in dietary behavior on weight gain remained unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the association between changes in dietary behavior and body weight during quarantine and to identify the risk factors of weight gain.

This was a pilot observational cross-sectional study. All the potential participants were those who underwent body weight management program in one teaching hospital in China from 26th April 2021 to 31st March 2022. An online self-reported questionnaire was sent to collect information on sex, age, self-reported body weight before and after quarantine, dietary quality, meal time, food consumption, physical activities, and sleep quality. Weight gain was defined as an increase of 1 kilogram or more. The study has been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee (KY2020-204). The participants were informed about the objectives of the study and electronic informed consent was obtained from each participant.

Finally, 79 participants (22.8% male and 77.2% female, aged 33.3 ± 7.1 years) was included in the analysis. During quarantine, the mean body weight gain was 0.8 (interquartile range: -1.0~3.0) kg. The proportion of weight gain among the participants was 45.6%. Increased cooked white rice (OR=16.93; 95% CI: 2.66-108.00), convenient food (OR=11.69; 95% CI: 2.00-68.26), and snack consumption (OR=5.56; 95% CI: 1.08-28.56), delayed dinner time (OR=6.64; 95% CI: 1.20-36.74) and house working time less than 30 minutes (OR=12.80; 95% CI: 2.01-81.44) were risk factors for body weight gain.

During the quarantine, weight gain was observed even in participants who were previously on body weight management. Increased consumption of cooked white rice, convenient food, and snack, as well as delayed dinner time and reduced house working time (less than 30 minutes), were found to be associated with body weight gain.