Fear Of Food Research Articles

Abdominal Vascular Evaluation

The vascular lab (VL) is instrumental in diagnosing vascular diseases such as renal artery stenosis and mesenteric ischemia or following a patient after transjugular intrahepatic portal systemic shunt (TIPS) creation. This article discusses indications, protocol, and diagnostic criteria for abdominal vascular ultrasound. The vascular lab can be used to investigate pathology in the abdomen either as a preliminary screening tool to evaluate for a pathology such as mesenteric artery stenosis in a patient with food fear and weight loss, renal artery stenosis in a patient with refractory hypertension or renal failure, or as a diagnostic tool in follow up after a patient has undergone a transjugular intrahepatic portal systemic shunt (TIPS) for portal hypertension. The technical success of duplex ultrasonography of the abdomen can be compromised by respiratory motion, obesity, and intestinal gas. Therefore, duplex scanning is performed in the fasting state particularly in elective outpatient cases. In emergent cases when pathology such as acute mesenteric ischemia is suspected evaluation with CT angiography may be best.

Living the dream – but not without hardship: stories about self-directed weight transformation from severe obesity

The objective of this narrative study was to explore experiences and assigned meanings in stories about self-directed weight loss (WL) maintenance after severe obesity (SO). Design In-depth interviews were conducted with eight women and two men, aged 27 to 59 years, who had carried out self-directed WL from SO for 5 years or more. Two themes ran across the stories fear of weight-regain, and food and emotion. We performed a case-based narrative analysis of especially rich interviews that illustrate these. Results pointed to persistently cultivating new competencies, establishing new eating habits, re-establishing old physical-training habits, and forming new relational bonds. Participants reinvented themselves and their lives. However, the stories are not all about transformation, but also about new and old health problems. Conclusion The study directs attention to ‘different obesities’, not only to initial weight from which WL takes place, but also linked to the experiential horizons that the persons embody from childhood on. Furthermore, there was no way back in the present stories, always haunted in the wake of the lost weight. A double burden imposed on the person with obesity related to meta-stories in society deepens the understanding of this imperative: being vulnerable health-wise and exposed to stigmatization.

Ferguson’s “Food Fears” in the Era of Covid-19

Ferguson’s “Food Fears” in the Era of Covid-19

Core eating disorder fears: Prevalence and differences in eating disorder fears across eating disorder diagnoses

Fear and anxiety are key maintaining factors for eating disorder (ED) pathology. Maladaptive fears lead to ED behaviors and avoidance, which provide temporary relief, but ultimately reinforce the fear and contribute to a cycle that maintains the ED. To date, fears of food and weight gain are the most explored fears underlying ED pathology. However, recently other important ED fears have been identified, including fears of social consequences and personal consequences. The current study (N=229 individuals with an ED) aimed to better characterize ED fears. Specifically, this study examined which ED fears were most endorsed across and within ED diagnoses, and if there were differences in ED fears by diagnosis and by weight status. Overall, fear of gaining weight was the most frequently endorsed fear, followed by fear of food, and fear of judgment. Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) most frequently endorsed fear of food, individuals with atypical AN and bulimia nervosa: fear of gaining weight, and those with other specified feeding and eating disorder: fear of judgment. Limited differences were found between diagnoses. When examining by weight category, participants with underweight most frequently endorsed fear of food, participants with normal weight: fear of gaining weight, and participants with overweight and obesity: fear of judgment. These findings suggest ED fears are heterogenous. Given such high heterogeneity, this work highlights the importance of assessing for specific ED fears at the beginning of treatment, which could be used to deliver personalized exposure treatment. Eating disorders (EDs) are serious mental illnesses with high rates of medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Fear plays an important role in the development and maintenance of EDs. The present study found fear of food, weight gain, and judgment are the most frequently endorsed fears for individuals with EDs and found few differences in fears based on ED diagnosis. These findings highlight the importance of assessing individuals' specific ED fears for treatment.

How has public perception of food safety and health risks changed a year after the pandemic and vaccines roll out?

The recent coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has caused unprecedented turmoil and spurred fears that have profoundly changed the public's social and health behaviours, including the perception of food safety risks. One year after the pandemic and the global vaccination campaign, the public perception of food safety and the changes in their hygiene behaviour, health risks concerns, and trust were studied in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia using a cross-sectional online survey. The results of 538 subjects showed a rise in the frequency of hygiene practices, notably in handwashing. Sixty-four percent of the participants were vaccinated, a proportion made up mainly of the Jordanians and Lebanese. For 66% and 64% of the two population groups, respectively, there were no longer trust concerns about COVID-19 health risks following vaccination, whereas the worries about getting COVID-19 persisted for others. Only 47% of participants trusted eating food prepared by vaccinated food handlers. A great majority of the Tunisians (81%) showed varying degrees of concern about COVID-19 transmission from food and the lowest vaccination rate (33%). The current study demonstrated that the impact of vaccination policy positively affects public perception of food-related risks during the pandemic. On the other hand, 33% of the surveyed Jordanians and Tunisians lost trust in the health authorities' management of the pandemic, and 45% of the Lebanese still don't trust them. Communication strategies on health and food safety with the public still represent a challenge for these and probably other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Strategies for building and maintaining public trust are crucial to curb persistent fear of food, hence, avoiding potential stigmatization affecting the food economy by promoting health awareness and positive changes in food safety perceptions for safer practices.

A case of a common iliac-mesenteric bypass for chronic mesenteric ischemia with coral reef aorta after common iliac endarterectomy.

Chronic mesenteric ischemia is a clinical diagnosis characterized by weight loss, food fear, and postprandial pain.1 Although retrograde mesenteric bypass is a commonly described technique in the literature, an end-to-end anastomosis directly from the common iliac artery (CIA) concurrent with iliac endarterectomy has not been frequently performed. Combined endarterectomy and bypass approaches have been proved to be durable in regard to patency rates and freedom from restenosis.2 We have described the case of a 75-year-old woman who had presented with a 15-lb weight loss, postprandial abdominal pain, and food fear.

It's not just about the food: Motivators of food patterns and their link with sustainable food neophobia

Food sustainability has been a growing focus in an attempt to limit climate change; as a result, the sustainable food market and an onset of social behaviors, such as shopping local and eating plant-based, is increasing. Limited however, is the understanding of how these sustainable food options are perceived among individuals who have different motivations for eating the way that they do. The situated identity enactment model and food neophobia literature are used to conceptualize the development of a model outlining how physical health, culture, and sustainability driven motivations of food patterns influence one's fear of sustainable food—moving beyond attitude as a suitable measurement in this context due to the complexity in the way select situational ques are cognitively processed. Data were collected among a representative U.S sample (n = 414) and analyzed through structural equation modeling using plant-based meat as the product of focus. Individuals whose food choices are culturally driven showed greater sustainable food neophobia and as motivations were more sustainability driven, the less fear they had of such foods. Contrary to what existing literature suggests, those driven by physical health showed no significance in the effects of their food patterns on neophobia even when considering a food option often positioned as healthier. Results also provided evidence of high local identity being a positive predictor of neophobia among those whose choices were culturally and sustainably driven. This study highlights the sensitivity of sustainable food and the importance of considering context, norms, and identity on food behaviors, regardless of one's underlying motives for food choices. Findings are influential in advancing social psychology literature on food behaviors and encourages the use of the model on other sustainable food products.

Food fears and risk of loss of food heritage: A little-explored effect of food modernity and times of pandemic

Multiple global transformations in production processes and in the buying and consuming patterns of prepared foods associated with food industrialization have led to cultural fragmentation. In food terms, this fragmentation is evidenced by pressures on food heritage, by the homogenization of diets and food practices, the loss of traditions, recipes, techniques and traditional preparations, among others. An additional pressure on food heritage is the popularization of hygienist discourse and increasingly stringent safety standards. Likewise, food modernity and the COVID 19 pandemic have generated insecurity in consumers and food fears in relation to the food consumed that can restrict their consumption. This article addresses the effect of food fear on the consumption of typical foods and the consequent loss of food heritage, taking as an example the consumption of typical foods of Colombian gastronomy prepared with hydrated corn dough. Based on an expert consultation (N = 102; 57 F, 45 M), it was evidenced that part of the consumers identify physical, chemical and microbiological risks in typical foods, and experience food fears that restrict their intake outside the home in spaces of cultural tradition such as stalls on the street and market places. There was also evidence of a limited reproduction of traditional recipes, even within homes, materializing a risk of loss of food heritage. Finally, it is concluded that this risk of loss of food heritage resides in the influence of modern nutritional habits on cultural values that are fragmented and disappear, such as the oral transmission of knowledge and culinary practices intergenerationally, family and community cohesion around food and the radical disappearance of recipes as well as their preparations.

COVID-19 lockdown and overweight in schoolchildren: 2 sides of the coin

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated changes in various fields of human life. In education, the abrupt change from face-to-face to virtuality has been a challenge, especially in low- and middle-income countries that lack infrastructure, funding, and continuous training for teachers and students on technological tools in education. A special population that is at risk in many aspects is the infant population, which does not have the capacity to face this type of changes in a mature and prepared way. Recently, a study was published where the authors inquired about aspects related to the socioeconomic and behavioral sphere, and their influence on overweight in children1, showing that many of these factors have intensified in the current pandemic, such as the inability to buy healthy foods, the scarcity of the same foods and family dysfunction, which can affect the cardiometabolic health of this population1. Similar results were shown by Parra-García et al2, who recently reviewed the topic of the indirect impact of the pandemic on the paediatric population in this journal, concluding that it is a challenge to identify all these problems in the global context2. However, we consider it necessary to comment on a paradoxical situation that is currently occurring, and which has a substantial impact on the weight and metabolic health of schoolchildren: feeding at home during confinement vs. feeding during classroom instruction. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have found a substantial and unfavorable impact on mental health in children and adolescents3,4. Up to 80% of this population group3–5, present neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, irritability, inattention, distress (due to virtual academic overload), fear, and sleep disturbances3,4. This has set off alarm bells in several scientific societies, in order to adopt measures to reduce the risk of suffering complications in the short and medium term, such as school dropout, self-injury, domestic violence, persistent and aggressive behavioral disorder, suicide, among others3,4. One particular disorder that is complex to understand and manage during this global catastrophe, because it depends on external factors such as economic, social and cultural factors, is disordered eating in children and adolescents6,7. Fernández-Aranda et al8 state that eating disorders can be generated mainly secondary to conditions such as large intake of food, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, which ultimately result in changes in cardiovascular risk and short-term decompensations such as electrolyte disturbances and fragility8. Generally, in schools where there is access to a wide variety of foods, in the case of schools that do not have a predetermined, structured and specialized food program, the student can buy his or her own food. In this order of ideas, depending on the availability of foods, which are generally hyper-caloric packaged foods and sugary drinks, so is the child/adolescent’s diet. Theoretically, as the shift from face-to-face to virtuality takes place, food at home should counteract this nutritional imbalance. However, the reality is different. Due to the ravages of COVID-19 on the household economy, the social inequity experienced in certain countries and the fear of contagion, acquiring healthy and quality food is not easy9. Therefore, many households tend to consume hypercaloric food at home, or buy inexpensive canned food, which threatens the child’s nutrition. This situation seems to be a risk factor difficult to control, since it does not depend on the attitude of the parents and the child to establish a healthy nutritional plan, but on the economic and local availability of healthy food. It seems, then, that schoolchildren’s nutrition at this time is in check, and it is expected that in the near future, a notable increase in overweight and obesity in schoolchildren will be observed. Therefore, it is necessary to research and design plans that go hand in hand with public policies to mitigate the impact that the child’s metabolic health suffers and will suffer, especially exacerbated by neuropsychiatric disorders prevalent during the pandemic and postpandemic era. Ethical approval None. Sources of funding None. Author contribution All authors equally contributed to the analysis and writing of the manuscript. Conflicts of interest disclosure The authors declare that they have no financial conflict of interest with regard to the content of this report. Research registration unique identifying number (UIN) None. Guarantor Sabrina Rahman, Department of Public Health, Independent University-Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Eating disorders in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences have been influencing considerably the Greek population and especially those people that are vulnerable or are actually suffering from a mental disorder. Considering eating disorders (ED) there are reports of a number of factors that increase the stress experienced by patients. The most important of them are:1 A. Quarantine and house confinement. Many ED patients report poor relationships with other family members or in some cases falling victims of some type of abusive behavior by other family members. Prolonged compulsory house confinement could have a negative impact in the course of ED. It should be noted that a similar negative impact of the pandemic has been observed in family members that have unsuccessfully tried to balance the need of the patients with the need of the rest of the family. B. Changes in exercising. Quarantine has severely influenced patients that have been doing vigorous and compulsive exercise. C. Food fear. During the first quarantine in March 2020, there were rumors of forthcoming extreme shortages of necessary products and food. D. Restrictions in the access to mental health facilities and therapists. In many countries, a substantial number of mental health programs were temporarily shut down during the first wave of the pandemic. E. Isolation of people residing alone in cities far away from the family home. F. Financial adversities due to slow down of economic activities causes by quarantine. g. Increase in obsessive fear concerning body health and food purity due to orthorexia nervosa onset or relapse.2 Research conducted during the pandemic showed that women suffering from ED reported more often than men increase in ED symptomatology, in the number of hours spent exercising and in the intensity of preoccupation with their body image and social appearance.2 A meta-analysis of ED studies during the pandemic showed that 65% of the patients reported a deterioration of ED symptomatology.3 Contrary to the above, the longitudinal studies that were included in the meta-analysis did not report any substantial difference in BMI and ed symptomatology before and after the first quarantine.3 Anorexia nervosa patients seemed to be more influenced than patients suffering from bulimia nervosa and ED non otherwise specified.3 Other longitudinal studies reported that bulimia nervosa patients were greatly influenced during the quarantine showing signs of slower remission or even relapse of the bulimic symptoms.4 Family conflict and intense fear for the life of loved ones could predict a relapse of the ED symptomatology.4 Young people were often caught in the following dilemma. On the one hand, consumption of palatable food could be used as a coping mechanism for regulating emotions such as anxiety, sorrow, and loneliness caused by prolonged house isolation. On the other hand, the increasing presence in the virtual reality environment of social networks has intensified the need for a perfect slim and fit body that could attract more followers and ensure social approval and success.5,6 A special interest group that was affected by the pandemic, was university students. ED symptomatology increased, especially among female students. Stress and depression related to social isolation and disruption of educational activities have been correlated with ED manifestation, especially bulimia nervosa.7 Fortunately, young patients seem to adjust adequately to internet-based treatments. There are indications that therapy through teleconference could prove quite effective for the treatment of ED.8 There are reports that this type of treatment is not attractive for anorexia nervosa patients, while all other ED patients are well adjusted to it.1 The consequences of the pandemic considerably affected mental health experts that have been treating ED patients as the number of new and relapsed clients raised dramatically. The situation was worsened by the fact that a large number of those patients had to be treated distantly. It has been reported that often conduct with other colleagues, the feeling of higher purpose or duty, recognition of their effort and supervision are some of the factors that can protect therapists from professional burn-out.1.

“If I could survive without eating, it would be a huge relief”: Development and initial validation of the Fear of Food Questionnaire

BackgroundFear of food and behavioral avoidance of specific foods, food groups, and food related social situations can substantially reduce health related quality of life in individuals with a wide range of conditions that affect appetite, eating behavior, and digestion, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), vomit and choking phobias, and food allergies/sensitivities. When this avoidance leads to weight/nutritional and/or psychosocial impairment, the diagnostic criteria for Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) are met. Fear of food is an important target for interventions designed to improve psychosocial functioning and quality of life in such individuals. The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a novel measure of fear of food. MethodsParticipants (n = 1138) were recruited from ongoing clinical trials for both IBD and IBS, from Amazon's Mechanical Turk, from Reddit support forums for IBS, IBD, and vomit phobia, and from an undergraduate subject pool. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson's correlations, one-way ANOVA, and intraclass correlation coefficients were used to assess the validity and reliability of the Fear of Food Questionnaire. ResultsThe final 18 item questionnaire showed excellent internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminative (known groups) validity, as well as good factor structure. Fear of food was highly correlated with visceral hypersensitivity, catastrophizing, GI symptom severity and health related quality of life, as well as with self-reported Fear-ARFID symptoms. Individuals meeting study criteria for Fear-ARFID reported the highest scores relative to control and other analogue clinical groups. ConclusionThe Fear of Food Questionnaire appears to be reliable and valid across populations and may be a valuable tool in the assessment and treatment of Fear-ARFID.

Validation of a test meal paradigm to experimentally manipulate meal-related fears: A registered report.

Fear is central to conceptualizations of weight and shape-focused eating disorders. The current study will examine the reliability and validity of a test meal paradigm that varies perceptions of fat content to manipulate fear. Undergraduate women with elevated eating pathology (N= 96) will be randomized to one of three test meal conditions: two "low" fat yogurts, two "high" fat yogurts, or one "high" fat and one "low" fat yogurt. In actuality, all yogurts will have the same fat content. Supporting reliability, we hypothesize that self-reported fear and electrodermal activity (psychophysiological index of fear-related arousal) will exhibit good test-retest reliability over a 48-hr period in the "high" fat/"high" fat and "low" fat/"low" fat conditions. Supporting construct validity, self-reported fear and electrodermal activity will be elevated during the "high" versus "low" fat condition and responses to the "high" fat condition will correlate with fear of food, eating, and weight gain. Supporting discriminant validity, self-reported disgust and anger will be comparable in the "high" and "low" fat conditions and will exhibit weak correlations with trait measures of disgust and anger. This experimental paradigm will allow researchers to manipulate fear in order understand the mechanisms by which fear maintains eating pathology.

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Hydroxyzine in the Treatment of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder in Children and Adolescents: Rationale and Evidence.

Objective: Despite lack of evidence, various pharmacological agents are judiciously used to manage anxiety in avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). We aimed to explore the effectiveness of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), either alone or in combination with hydroxyzine, in a well-defined cohort of children and adolescents with ARFID receiving treatment in a partial hospitalization program for eating disorders. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 53 patients with ARFID who were prescribed an SSRI (n = 39) or SSRI with hydroxyzine (n = 14). We investigated changes from admission to discharge in these two medication groups on various outcome measures assessing weight, eating behaviors, mood, anxiety, and fears about food. Results: Participants in the SSRI+hydroxyzine group were significantly older than those in the SSRI only group. The majority of participants in both groups exhibited the fear presentation of ARFID. Repeated-measures analysis of variance yielded a significant main effect for treatment for all outcome measures, indicating that patients in both groups experienced improvements in weight, eating behaviors, mood, anxiety, and fears of food. A significant main effect for medication group emerged on the Children's Depression Inventory, suggesting that the group receiving SSRI+hydroxyzine experienced greater depressive symptomatology than the SSRI-only group. We did not find any significant interactions, indicating that participants in both medication groups experienced similar improvements over the course of treatment. Conclusion: These results provide preliminary evidence that SSRIs and hydroxyzine may be helpful in the treatment of children and adolescents with ARFID. Given that hydroxyzine was prescribed to patients who experienced high pre- and/or postmeal anxiety, it possibly contributed to similar decreases in anxiety and fear of food in a more challenging subset of patients. Randomized, placebo-controlled studies for children and adolescents with ARFID are warranted to better evaluate and understand the efficacy of SSRIs and hydroxyzine in this clinical population.

Food Fears

AbstractIn Word of Mouth: What We Talk about When We Talk about Food (2014), Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson discusses “food fears,” recognizing how food can be both a source of sustenance and pleasure and, at the same time, a site of danger and death. In this article, I endeavor to show how Ferguson’s “food fears” can elucidate Perec’s rewriting of Proust’s madeleine episode. I sketch this out in La Disparition (1969) and W ou le souvenir d’enfance (1975), before focusing on La Vie mode d’emploi (1978). While Proust’s madeleine episode concerns both the evocative power of food and its capacity to conjure memories in the protagonist, in Perec, food and memories are often missing altogether. Certain artistic projects in La Vie mode d’emploi also fail or falter, with the notable exception of Perec’s own book. Thus, whereas food conjures abundance, pleasure, and memories in Proust, in Perec it has no such power, standing instead as a marker of loss, trauma, and forgetting. If the madeleine is a kind of comfort food, Perec’s anti-madeleine is a site of discomfort, a surrogate for all the other losses Perec is trying to account for, and through his insistence on the absence of food, he evokes the personal and collective trauma of the Holocaust.

Adaptation and Validation of the Food Neophobia Scale: The Case of Hungary.

Food neophobia is the fear or loathing of novel food, which may result in the rejection of the unfamiliar food item. The most frequently used and most reliable tool to measure adult food neophobia is the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS), which has been translated into several languages, making it possible to compare food neophobia levels around the world. The main objective of this research has been the adaptation and validation of the FNS in Hungary. In order to achieve the research objectives, a questionnaire survey was conducted on a representative sample of 500 adults; and, primarily, multivariate statistical tools were used. We found that despite the Hungarian population’s strong neophobic tendency, neophobia and neophilia are present at the same time. We identified two distinctive factors in the course of the exploratory factor analysis (“Willingness and trust” and “Rejection and particularity”), which distinctly separate the negatively and positively worded (reversed) FNS items. Based on these factors, four clusters were identified. Those belonging in the group of adventurous open-minded individuals constitute an ideal target group for the manufacturers of novel food items as well as products with unusual flavors, especially if those products also have health-enhancing and eco-friendly qualities.

No effect of very brief exposure to masked food pictures on fear of food in anorexia nervosa.

Very brief exposure to masked images of spider stimuli can facilitate approach behaviour towards spiders in fearful subjects. We hypothesized that a similar effect might occur for fear of food in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), possibly offering a new treatment approach, with advantages over other methods of food exposure. Patients with AN (n=60) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions and received a single session of exposure to either masked and very briefly presented food images, clearly visible food images, or masked non-food images (i.e. household items). Effects of the three exposure conditions on fear of food and food avoidance were examined. Contrary to our expectations, very brief food cue exposure was not superior to the control conditions regarding fear of food and approach behaviour towards food immediately after the intervention and body mass index four weeks later. This finding suggests important differences between fear of food in AN and specific phobias such as fear of spiders. The absence of an effect reveals limitations of the very brief exposure method, which might be better suited for evolutionarily relevant threat stimuli.

Retrograde Mesenteric Bypass with Saphenous Vein Graft in Chronic Mesenteric Ischemia in a Resource-Challenged Setting

Introduction: Chronic mesenteric ischemia is a pathophysiologic condition arising due to demand–supply mismatch of blood supply to bowel postprandially, resulting in chronic abdominal pain, food fear, and weight loss. The most common cause is atherosclerosis. Timely intervention in the form of mesenteric revascularization is the key to successful outcome. There are limited contemporary data on in-hospital outcomes of mesenteric revascularization via open versus endovascular therapy in a resource-challenged setting. Materials and Methods: This retrospective-prospective observational study included eight patients of chronic mesenteric ischemia who underwent open revascularization and were followed for a mean duration of 15 months. All patients were evaluated as per the institutional protocol, and retrograde mesenteric bypass with reverse saphenous vein graft was done in all cases. Outcomes were evaluated in terms of resolution of symptoms and confirmation of graft patency with duplex scan after 1 month and every 6 months thereafter. Results: Out of 8 patients, six patients were males. Predisposing factors for atheromatous diseases were present in all. All patients presented with postprandial abdominal pain and weight loss. Majority of patients (n = 5) had involvement of all three mesenteric vessels (superior mesenteric artery, inferior mesenteric artery, and celiac axis). One patient was re-explored for bleeding in immediate postoperative period. One patient was admitted for small bowel obstruction in 1st month of follow-up after surgery and was managed conservatively. Two patients were lost to follow-up and six patients are symptom free and doing well on a close follow-up of 15 months. Conclusion: Open mesenteric revascularization, by reverse saphenous vein graft as conduit for bypass, performed by experienced surgeon gives promising results in terms of symptom-free duration and graft patency and can be preferred over endoscopic revascularization as a viable option in resource-challenged settings in developing nations.

Lockdown farmers markets in Bengaluru: Direct marketing activities and potentials for rural-urban linkages in the food system

Rural-urban linkages are vital elements in a sustain­able food system. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, supply chains were disrupted and fear of infection impacted food shopping decisions, push­ing consumers to seek local and safer options for procuring fresh produce. Direct marketing arose as a promising alternative for both consumers and producers. We undertook a study in Bengaluru, India, in order to understand what direct marketing activities have unfolded with the COVID-19 pan­demic. Media reports highlighted the plight of farmers struggling to market their harvest during lockdown as well as the farm to fork initiatives and lockdown farmers markets that have been created as a response. We see this moment as an opportu­nity to develop Bengaluru’s food system to be more sustainable, specifically through the City Region Food System framework. This study conducted online and telephone surveys with both consumers and producers in Bengaluru to explore the elements of supply and demand that have fos­tered and hindered direct marketing schemes. We found that consumers are interested in sourcing fruits and vegetables directly from farmers, but communi­cation and logistics between consumers and pro­ducers are major hindrances. Although producers are diversifying their marketing strate­gies, they need to be implemented at economically viable scales to ensure long-term success. We find that the role of technology, specifically messaging apps, can streamline direct marketing activities and remove the barriers that currently hamper rural-urban linkages. Further­more, existing community and farmer organiza­tions have the size and scale to make direct marketing schemes a worthy endeavor for both consumers and producers.

"… It is like it has come up and stole our lives from us" The first 21 days: A rapid qualitative assessment of how different sectors of society experienced the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa.

We examined how different sectors of society experienced the first 21 days of the stay-at-home lockdown following the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in South Africa. This rapid qualitative assessment was conducted remotely with 60 key and community informants from different socio-cultural and economic backgrounds in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape provinces of South Africa. Atlas.ti.8 was used to facilitate qualitative data analysis. Data revealed how the lockdown exacerbated social inequalities for the poor and marginalised. Fear of infection, and food and income insecurity were common concerns mentioned in key and community informant interviews. Despite the social and economic distress, the data also point to a narrative of social responsibility, resilience and social cohesion. The social responsibility and cohesion demonstrated by South African communities should be drawn upon to invoke community resilience, even in the absence of physical proximity.

Psychometric properties of the fear of food measure in Japanese women.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the fear of food measure (FOFM) in Japanese women. This study was a cross-sectional, observational, and multicenter study conducted at the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University. Participants were comprised of 169 healthy women and 149 patients with eating disorders. First, the present study explored the factor structure of FOFM in Japanese women using exploratory factor analyses. Then, the Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega were calculated to assess reliability. Concurrent validity was examined by calculating correlation coefficients with the Eating Attitudes Test, negative affect of Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Additionally, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare scores between the healthy control and patient group. The final model had four subscales. The subscales, thus, had high reliability and showed significant positive correlations with the questionnaires. The scores of subscales in the patient group were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group. The FOFM had a four-factor structure in Japanese women. Its reliability and validity were verified and it could be used as a tool to assess fear of food. III, case-control analytic study.