The prevalence of mental health outcomes among eating disorder patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Patients with eating disorders (ED) are known to suffer from various psychological morbidities thus they are expected to be negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pooled prevalence of psychological comorbidities in ED patients. METHODS: Pubmed, Scopus, GoogleScholar, and medRxiv were searched using the keywords COVID19 and Eating Disorders and their related MeSH terms. The articles were included if they contained patients with diagnosed EDs and having evaluated their mental health disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the “assessing risk of bias in prevalence studies” tool. The heterogeneity was assessed using Cochrane Q and I2 heterogeneity statistics. RESULTS: A total of 13 articles have been included in this meta-analysis with a sample size of 3056. The pooled prevalence of ED patients who experienced worsening of ED symptoms was 57% (95%CI: 36%–76%), anxiety was 64% (95%CI: 39%–78%), and depression was 55% (95%CI: 12%–87%) during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis provides evidence supporting an increase in the pooled prevalence of mental health disorders among patients suffering from EDs during the COVID-19 pandemic.