Impact of COVID 19 pandemic lockdown on weight of patients in outpatient setting

Background: Maintaining body weight is a delicate balance achieved by proper nutrition, optimal sleep, stress management and adequate exercise. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown presented unique challenges including access to a proper diet and/or right physical activity and change in stress levels as well as changes in sleep duration and pattern.

Methods: Patients in an outpatient practice were handed the survey questionnaire which they patients completed and handed back at check out. This was a one-time survey. Questions included information about weight before and after lockdown/stay at home order, food intake, physical activity, sleep and stress levels. Using IBM SPSS Statistics Software analysis of variance was calculated for each group with a determined alpha value of 0.05. This was used to determine statistical significance in weight change between the groups.

Results: A significant difference in weight change based on patients' self-report of change in stress levels was found with p = 0.04. Of individuals who reported a decrease in stress had a mean weight loss of 3.58lbs, while individuals who reported an increase in stress reported a weight gain of 2.39lbs.

Conclusion: In our study, we did find that the COVID restrictions have impacted all the above-mentioned lifestyle contributors, but we could only derive significant association between decreased stress and weight loss. Although we did see weight changes with change in all the above variables, it was not statistically significant.