Food insecurity and lifestyle behaviours in university students amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative survey across three countries.

Background: University students, often unemployed and reliant on low-nutrition foods, are susceptible to food insecurity (FI) with potential physical and mental health challenges. This study explores FI and its impact on lifestyle behaviours among university students.

Methods: A cross-sectional web-based study was performed by sending an online questionnaire to university students in Lebanon, Cyprus, and Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excessive health behaviors in sports: links of orthorexia nervosa and exercise addiction with well-being, exercise activity in sports categories, and gender effects.

Background And Aims: Orthorexia nervosa (OrNe), the obsessive fixation on healthy eating, and exercise addiction (ExAdd) have been discussed as correlated excessive health behaviors with potential mental health implications. The role of gender-and sports-specific differences remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the links of ExAdd, OrNe, and the non-pathological interest in healthy eating (healthy orthorexia; HeOr) with well-being and exercise activity in various sports, considering gender effects.

The effects of chronic fatigue and chronic stress on alterations in immune cell responses to acute psychosocial stress.

Fatigue is a common and debilitating symptom of a broad spectrum of diseases. Previous research has shown that individuals suffering from chronic forms of fatigue experience significantly more stress compared to healthy individuals, suggesting that stress is a potential pathophysiological factor in the onset and maintenance of chronic fatigue. Individually, chronic experiences of fatigue and stress have been associated with disruptions in adaptive immunity.

Smartwatch step counting: impact on daily step-count estimation accuracy.

Introduction: The effect of displayed step count in smartwatches on the accuracy of daily step-count estimation and the potential underlying psychological factors have not been revealed. The study aimed for the following: (i) To investigate whether the counting and reporting of daily steps by a smartwatch increases the daily step-count estimation accuracy and (ii) to elucidating underlying psychological factors.

Methods: A total of 34 healthy men and women participants wore smartwatches for 4 weeks.

Starting in your mental pole position: hypnosis helps elite downhill Mountainbike athletes to reach their optimal racing mindset.

Introduction: Downhill Mountain Biking is an extreme sport requiring high mental strength to perform on the best level in a competition with only one run to win the race. The substantial challenge here is to control automatic processes like competitive anxiety and stress. Hypnosis can address these automatic processes.

Comparative Study of the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Nutritional Practices Among International Elite and Sub-Elite Athletes: A Sample of 1420 Participants from 14 Countries.

Background: Although several studies have shown that the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown has had negative impacts on mental health and eating behaviors among the general population and athletes, few studies have examined the long-term effects on elite and sub-elite athletes. The present study aimed to investigate the long-term impact of COVID-19 lockdown on mental health and eating behaviors in elite versus sub-elite athletes two years into the pandemic. A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted between March and April 2022, involving athletes from 14 countries, using a convenient non-probabilistic and snowball sampling method.

Stress Management Apps: Systematic Search and Multidimensional Assessment of Quality and Characteristics.

Background: Chronic stress poses risks for physical and mental well-being. Stress management interventions have been shown to be effective, and stress management apps (SMAs) might help to transfer strategies into everyday life.

Objective: This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the quality and characteristics of SMAs to give potential users or health professionals a guideline when searching for SMAs in common app stores.

How to modify expectations of social rejection? An experimental study using a false-feedback paradigm.

Background And Objectives: Negative expectations (NEs) are fundamental to various mental disorders. Finding ways to modulate NEs would help to improve clinical treatment. The present study investigated how previously formed expectations of social rejection are revised in the context of novel positive social experiences, and whether their revision can be modulated by differentially shifting participants' attentional focus.

Effects of home confinement on physical activity, nutrition, and sleep quality during the COVID-19 outbreak in amateur and elite athletes.

Introduction: Despite the progress in the management of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, it is necessary to continue exploring and explaining how this situation affected the athlete population around the world to improve their circumstances and reduce the negative impact of changes in their lifestyle conditions that were necessitated due to the pandemic. The aim of this study was to analyze the moderating influence of physical activity (PA) and dietary habits on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic experience on sleep quality in elite and amateur athletes.

Materials And Methods: A total of 1,420 elite (40.

Assessing the relationship between food insecurity and lifestyle behaviors among university students: a comparative study between Lebanon and Germany.

Background: Food insecurity is a common public health problem in both developed and developing countries. This study aimed to profile food insecurity among university students in a developed country with stable economic circumstances (Germany) and a developing Mediterranean country undergoing a severe economic and financial crisis (Lebanon) and examine the associations between food insecurity and lifestyle behaviors (i.e.

Psychological Correlates of Excessive Healthy and Orthorexic Eating: Emotion Regulation, Attachment, and Anxious-Depressive-Stress Symptomatology.

Orthorexia nervosa, the pathological obsession with eating healthy, shares risks and significant comorbidity with other mental disorders. Based on a behavioral conceptualization of the overlap, emotion regulation, attachment style, and anxious-depressive-stress symptomatology are prominent but insufficiently researched endophenotypes for orthorexia nervosa. This study aimed at identifying ways in which difficulties in emotion regulation and attachment-related anxiety and avoidance become apparent in orthorexia nervosa and healthy orthorexia.

A Systematic Review of Thermosensation and Thermoregulation in Anxiety Disorders.

Sweating, hot flushes, and blushing are symptoms frequently reported by individuals with anxiety disorders. They represent important reinforcers of anxiogenic cognitions and behaviours. One system that may be involved in the manifestation of these symptoms is the thermosensory/thermoregulatory system.

Globally altered sleep patterns and physical activity levels by confinement in 5056 individuals: ECLB COVID-19 international online survey.

Symptoms of psychological distress and disorder have been widely reported in people under quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic; in addition to severe disruption of peoples' daily activity and sleep patterns. This study investigates the association between physical-activity levels and sleep patterns in quarantined individuals. An international Google online survey was launched in April 6, 2020 for 12-weeks.

Direct and Stress-Buffering Effects of COVID-19-Related Changes in Exercise Activity on the Well-Being of German Sport Students.

Maintaining or initiating exercise activity in the COVID-19 pandemic may act as a buffer against the observed stress-related deterioration in well-being, with emotion regulation (ER) discussed as a possible moderator. Therefore, the present study investigated the interaction between stress, exercise activity (EA), and ER on mood. In an online survey, 366 German sports science students (56% women, = 23.

Alike and different: Associations between orthorexic eating behaviors and exercise addiction.

Objective: Symptoms of exercise addiction, a state of compulsively engaging in intense exercise, and orthorexic eating attitudes, the obsession with eating only healthy foods, often occur together. It is assumed that some more general psychological traits underlie this association. Main aim of this report was to examine similarities and differences between orthorexic eating and addictive exercising.

Association between impulsivity and orthorexia nervosa: any moderating role of maladaptive personality traits?

Objectives: To explore the possible moderating relation between impulsive behavior and maladaptive personality traits in regards to orthorexia nervosa (ON).

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between July and December 2019 and recruited 519 Lebanese adults from seven community pharmacies randomly selected from a list provided by the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists. The Teruel Orthorexia Scale (TOS) was employed to assess orthorexic eating tendencies, the I-8 measured impulsivity and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID) evaluated maladaptive personality traits.

Effects of home confinement on mental health and lifestyle behaviours during the COVID-19 outbreak: insights from the ECLB-COVID19 multicentre study.

Although recognised as effective measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, social distancing and self-isolation have been suggested to generate a burden throughout the population. To provide scientific data to help identify risk factors for the psychosocial strain during the COVID-19 outbreak, an international cross-disciplinary online survey was circulated in April 2020. This report outlines the mental, emotional and behavioural consequences of COVID-19 home confinement.

Obsessive healthy eating and orthorexic eating tendencies in sport and exercise contexts: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) and exercise addiction (ExAdd) are two phenomena believed to overlap. We conducted a meta-analysis exploring the link between ON and (addictive) exercise behaviors.

Methods: A systematic review of major databases and gray literature was carried out for studies reporting on ON and (addictive) exercise behaviors.

Joint associations of regular exercise and healthy diet with psychobiological stress reactivity in a healthy male sample.

Engaging in physical activity and exercise have long been shown to have beneficial effects on (psychosocial) stress reactivity. Initial studies could reveal that these positive effects on stress reactivity also exist for a healthy diet. Aim of this study was to examine whether combining a healthy diet and regular exercise can provide additional benefits on psychobiological stress levels.