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Background COVID-19 has impacted mental health globally, however, relationships between anxiety and eating behaviors during the pandemic have not been explored. This study evaluated anxiety, eating attitudes and behaviors, and associations between anxiety and eating behaviors in students at a large public University in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Current undergraduate and graduate/professional students completed a cross-sectional survey in fall 2020. Demographic information, indicators of anxiety in the past two weeks assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener (GAD-7), and eating behaviors assessed by the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire (AEBQ) were evaluated. A score ≥ 10 on the GAD-7 indicated anxiety (≥ 15 indicated severe anxiety). Eating behaviors were reported via Likert scale and combined into eight AEBQ subscales; subscale mean and standard deviation were reported. Differences in mean AEBQ subscale scores were examined between participants with and without anxiety via Mann-Whitney U tests. Multivariate linear regression was utilized to examine associations between GAD-7 score and individual AEBQ subscale scores, adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and student status. Results The final sample included 1243 students (57% undergraduates). In the full sample, 51.9% experienced anxiety in the past two weeks; 24.6% had severe anxiety. Subgroups with the highest prevalence of anxiety included non-cisgender participants (73.6%), the youngest age group [18–20 years of age (62%)], undergraduate students (60.7%), and Hispanic/Latino participants (57.5%). Participants with anxiety had significantly lower AEBQ scores for enjoyment of food and significantly higher scores for emotional over and under-eating, food fussiness, food and satiety responsiveness, and hunger than those with no anxiety (p |
