EATING A BALANCED DIET AND AVOIDING THE NEWS HELPED US THROUGH COVID
The protective effect was even stronger than interacting with friends or enjoying hobbies, a Spanish study has found
A healthy diet and staying away from the news may have been the best way to avoid succumbing to anxiety and depression during the pandemic, a study carried out by researchers in Barcelona has found.
Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us experienced increased feelings of anxiety and depression. According to the Office of National Statistics, around one in five adults in the UK experienced some form of depression at the height of the pandemic. This compares to around one in 10 before the pandemic.
To make the discovery, the researchers asked almost 1,000 adult Spanish volunteers to note their levels of anxiety and depression, along with the coping behaviours they carried out, for one year during the COVID pandemic. When presenting their findings at the 35th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual conference in Vienna, the team reported that following a healthy, balanced diet and not reading too many news updates about COVID were most associated with coping better with the pandemic. Taking regular exercise, going outdoors and relaxing were also seen to have a benefit.
“These simple behaviours may prevent anxiety and depression, and prevention is better than cure”
However, some behaviours that were widely recommended to be beneficial, such as talking with relatives or friends, or spending time on a hobby, had a much smaller effect.
“This was a little surprising. Like many people, we had assumed that personal contact would play a bigger part in avoiding anxiety and depression during stressful times,” said lead researcher Dr Joaquim Radua, of the Institut d’investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, Barcelona.
“The relationships between behaviours and symptoms were difficult to tease out because we were looking at what happens over time, rather than just at a single moment of analysis,” he added.
Though the study is yet to be fully peer-reviewed, it could provide a valuable insight into how we can better cope with stressful situations.
“Our work was centred on COVID, but we now need to see if these factors apply to other stressful circumstances,” said Radua. “These simple behaviours may prevent anxiety and depression, and prevention is better than cure.”