{"doi":"10.17615/cw00-9645","title":"Mental Health After COVID‐19 Death‐Related Loss in Individuals With Eating Disorders: A Multi‐Country Nested Matched Case–Control Study","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of deaths worldwide and significantly impacted people with eating disorders, exacerbating symptoms and limiting access to care. This study examined the association between COVID-19 death-related loss-defined as the death of a family member, friend, or acquaintance due to COVID-19-and mental health among people with preexisting eating disorders in the United States (US), the Netherlands, and Sweden. METHOD: Participants with a history of eating disorders completed a baseline survey early in the pandemic (US: N = 511; Netherlands: N = 510; Sweden: N = 982) and monthly (US, the Netherlands) or biannual (Sweden) follow-ups from April 2020 to May 2021. The surveys assessed pandemic impact on eating disorder-related behaviors and concerns, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and COVID-19-related deaths. A matched nested case-control design was used to compare individuals experiencing a death-related loss with matched controls. RESULTS: A substantial proportion experienced a COVID-19 death-related loss (US: 33%; Netherlands: 39%; Sweden: 17%). No significant differences were found between cases and controls on eating disorder, anxiety, depression, or sleep outcomes. DISCUSSION: Despite the expected influence of COVID-19 death-related loss on mental health, our study found no significant association. Reactions to pandemics may be highly individual, and practitioners may want to consider broader losses-such as bereavement, missed educational experiences, relationship disruptions, financial instability, and employment challenges-when addressing patients' needs. Future research should continue to explore how death-related loss impacts eating disorder risk and progression.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2025,"id":584434,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9606,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":235151,"name":"Jet D. Termorshuizen","orcid":"0000-0002-5912-3975","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1418248,"name":"Kayla Costello","orcid":"0000-0002-5486-9647","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":603222,"name":"Andreas Birgegård","orcid":"0000-0003-1220-9680","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":112587,"name":"Cynthia M. Bulik","orcid":"0000-0001-7772-3264","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235157,"name":"Christine M. Peat","orcid":"0000-0001-9540-7185","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1418249,"name":"Emma Forsén Mantilla","orcid":"0000-0001-9550-3820","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235156,"name":"Eric F. van Furth","orcid":"0000-0002-1131-0886","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235152,"name":"Hunna J. Watson","orcid":"0000-0001-8405-381X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":938277,"name":"Rachel W. Goode","orcid":"0000-0002-1358-3917","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":238616,"name":"Stina Borg","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235153,"name":"Laura M. Thornton","orcid":"0000-0001-9384-7988","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":938276,"name":"Elin Hedlund","orcid":"0000-0002-6794-6568","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":938275,"name":"Katherine A. Thompson","orcid":"0000-0002-3841-2508","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:59:11.978098Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}