Abstract

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 resulted in dietary and lifestyle changes and mental health issues that led to weight changes. However, the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on the body weight of Hispanic adults was unknown. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess weight change among Hispanic adults living in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2023). Methods: We used data from the National Clinical Cohort Collaborative (N3C) from January 2019 through December 2023, with a total of 12,131 participants aged 21-84 years, a majority of female (64.9%) and overweight or obese (83.3%) before the pandemic. Paired and independent t tests, one-way and repeated measures ANOVA, McNemar-Bower test, and mixed linear regression models were used in the study. Results: This study showed that overall weight changed in a pyramidal pattern: first increased from pre pandemic 80.8 to 81.3 kg in 2021 and then decreased to 81.0 kg through 2023. A similar weight change pattern was observed across various subgroups, including those aged 50-59 years, male and female, all races, smokers, healthy and swamp food environment groups, and patients with hypertension, depression, heart disease or AIDS. In addition, during the pandemic, younger (<50 years) people continued to gain weight while older people (>59 years) continued to lose weight; females gained more weight than males (0.6 vs. 0.3 kg); Black people gained the most weight (1 kg) of all races; smokers gained more weight than non-smokers (0.6 vs. 0.5 kg); the swamp food group gained more weight than healthy group (0.64 vs. 0.48 kg); underweight and normal-weight people before the pandemic gained weight while people with obese II and III lost weight; COVID19 cases weighed less than non-cases; and patients with diabetes, stroke, cancer, kidney disease or dementia lost weight throughout the entire pandemic. Conclusions: In this study, we observed significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on body weight in Hispanic adults from 2019 to 2023, particularly the pyramidal pattern, which suggests us to implement an efficient program to reverse the adverse effects of the pandemic and improve public health outcomes for Hispanic adults and the population as a whole.

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; BMI; Hispanics; Lifestyles; N3C; Obesity; Overweight; Body Weight