The Relationship between Obligatory Exercise and Eating Attitudes, and the Mediating Role of Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Hongying Fan,Mariusz Lipowski,Daniel Krokosz,Youteng Gan,Jianye Li,Keqiang Li,Yin Yang,Siming Chen,Ruohang Wang,Małgorzata Lipowska

doi:10.3390/nu13124286

Abstract

A strong sociocultural context could affect an individual’s aesthetic standards. In order to achieve a socially recognized ideal appearance, obligatory exercisers might increase dieting behavior when exercise actions are disturbed, thereby placing the individual at risk of eating disorders. The current study mainly examined the relationship between obligatory exercise and eating attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and considered the mediating role of externalized sociocultural attitudes towards appearance between the two. A total of 342 participants (175 females, 167 males) from various regions of China were invited to fill out the questionnaires including the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire, the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire-3, and the Eating Attitudes Test. In total, 51.5% of the participants presented symptoms of an obligatory exercise behavior. Among them, males, young adults, and the participants with lower BMI had higher OEQ scores, whereas females and young adults had higher EAT-26 scores. Meanwhile, 9.4% of the participants might have had an eating disorder. The OEQ score was positively correlated with the EAT-26 total score as well as SATAQ-3 ‘Pressures’ and ‘Information’ subscales. In addition, the EAT-26 total score was positively correlated with the SATAQ-3 ‘Pressures’ and ‘Information’ subscales. Externalized sociocultural attitudes towards appearance served as a mediator between obligatory exercise behavior and eating attitudes, and the mediation effect accounted for 56.82% of the total effect. Obligatory exercise behavior may have an indirect effect on eating attitudes through sociocultural attitudes towards appearance. Given the sociocultural information and pressures, in order to maintain or pursue an ideal appearance, many people tend to keep a pathological diet. Thus, forming a positive and healthy social aesthetic orientation is beneficial in helping obligatory exercisers to develop reasonable eating habits.

Highlights

IntroductionPhysical activity (PA) is well-known for its beneficial effects for cognition [1,2]; it has the function of promoting personal physical health but can reduce health and become an economic burden on society [3,4]
In addition to demographic differences, we examined the interrelationships between these three main variables in our study, and we found that there is a very weak positive correlation between the obligatory exercise behaviors and eating attitudes, which is in line with some previous discoveries [27,73]
When the demographic variables, Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire (OEQ), and SATAQ scales were used to predict EAT-26, we found that gender and age predicted different components of eating attitudes separately, while similar results were presented for Pressure and Information, consistent with our previous findings

Summary

Introduction

Physical activity (PA) is well-known for its beneficial effects for cognition [1,2]; it has the function of promoting personal physical health but can reduce health and become an economic burden on society [3,4]. Exercise improves adverse symptoms in patients with depression and sleep disorders [5,6], promotes mental well-being (including emotional state and self-esteem), supports coping with alcohol problems [7], and increases positive emotions [8,9]. In cases when exercise behavior is excessive, and people perceive it as the key life activity, ignoring their current physical condition or the social consequences of being obsessed with exercising (e.g., neglecting household chores, relationships, and obligations), such a behavior is called ‘obligatory exercise’ [11]. People presenting symptoms of the obligatory exercise behavior (so-called ‘obligatory exercisers’)

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