Eating disorders may increase Covid-19 severity (Preprint)

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has mobilised a concerted research effort to identify biological, so-cio-demographic, and behavioural factors which may increase the risk of infection, and se-verity of the disease. Whilst much research has explored physical health factors which may affect these risks, the effects of mental health and attitudes have been less fully investigat-ed.

The current study is one of the first to investigate possible associations between optimism bias, mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, and Covid-19 severity. A second aim of the present study was to illuminate any observed relationships by exploring the sub-jective experiences of being ill with Covid-19 of individuals with these disorders.

A convenience sample of 400 adults (210M; aged 18-64, M = 33.32, SD = 11.79) who had tested positive for Covid-19 completed a survey that asked them whether they had any mental health or developmental disorders. They were also asked questions about how likely they had thought it was they would become ill (optimism bias) and a free-response item about their experience of having Covid-19. Sentiment analysis coded these responses as negative, neutral, or positive.

Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that having an eating disorder (χ2 = 5.86, p < 0.001) and having a higher optimism bias (χ2 = 4.65, p < 0.001) increased the odds of being hospitalised with Covid-19 (a proxy for severity). Sentiment analysis indicated that having autism decreased the likelihood of having a negative sentiment towards being ill (χ2 = -632.46, p < 0.001).

Supplemented by future research with a larger sample size and more targeted qualitative analysis, these findings may inform public health messaging and care provision for individu-als with these disorders in pandemic or health contexts.