The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and lockdown measures, that were implemented in many countries in order to control the virus transmission, had negatively influenced the lifestyle of millions of people worldwide. In this study we aimed to investigate the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown period (March–May 2020) on snacking behavior, fast-food and alcohol consumption. A systematic search in PubMed®, Scopus® and Web of Science® databases was conducted and 32 studies were included. Changes in snacking, in fast-food and ordered food consumption and in alcohol intake were examined. Snacking was found to be increased for a significant portion of the population examined (18.9–45.1%), whereas fast food (15.0–41.3%) and ordered food (33.9%) showed a tendency towards decrease. As per alcohol consumption, an upward trend was observed in a significant part (10.4–51.0%) of the participants examined. The increased snacking and alcohol consumption observed for almost a third of the examined population could be alarming because long-term health problems could arise in cases of repeated lockdowns in the future. The observed downward trend in fast-food consumption and in frequency of ordered food could be an encouraging sign of turning to home-prepared foods, but further research is needed in this field.
Background and aims COVID-19 is an ongoing global pandemic, affecting nearly 35 million people from 214 countries as at September 30, 2020. Emerging evidence suggests that obesity is a potential risk factor for communicable diseases, including viral infections. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between obesity prevalence of the total adult population and COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, in different countries. Methods A total of 54 countries from six continents were selected. Country-specific obesity prevalence data were retrieved from the latest non-communicable diseases profiles released by the Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health Cluster of World Health Organization, while the real time statistics from the Worldometer website were used to extract data on COVID-19 infections and mortality per million of the total population as of September 30, 2020. Results Obesity prevalence data ranged from 2.0% (Vietnam) to 35.0% (Saudi Arabia). Among the selected countries, the highest number of COVID-19 cases per million was documented in Qatar (n = 44,789) while the lowest was reported from Vietnam (n = 11). Highest mortality per million population due to COVID-19 infections occurred in Peru (n = 981), in contrast with the smallest number reported in Mongolia (n = 0). A significant positive correlation (r = 0.46; p < 0.001) was observed between the total number of COVID-19 infections and the prevalence of obesity. COVID-19 mortality was also significantly correlated (r = 0.34; p < 0.05) with the prevalence of obesity. Conclusions Obesity prevalence in each country was significantly associated with both infection and mortality rate of COVID-19.
Background and aims COVID-19 is a pandemic that has affected beyond 100 million and caused nearly 3 million deaths globally. Vitamin D is a known risk factor for COVID-19. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association of prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and mean vitamin D level with COVID-19 infection and mortality in Asia, predicting with other confounding factors such as median age, obesity, and diabetes. Methods COVID-19 infections and mortalities among the Asian countries were retrieved from the Worldometer website. Information on prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and mean vitamin D values in each Asian country was retrieved through literature searching on PubMed® and Google scholar. The associations between COVID-19 infections and mortalities with prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and mean vitamin D level were explored with correlation coefficients. As a predictive analysis, multiple linear regression was carried out with all confounders. Results Positive correlations were observed for prevalence of vitamin D deficiency with COVID-19 infections (r = 0.55; p = 0.01; R 2 = 0.31) and mortalities (r = 0.50; p = 0.01; R 2 = 0.25). Moreover, the associations for the COVID-19 infections and mortalities improved to r = 0.76 (p = 0.002; R 2 = 0.58) and r = 0.65 (p = 0.03; R 2 = 0.42) respectively after predicting with confounding factors. Similarly, mean vitamin D level had a significant negative correlation with COVID-19 infections (r = −0.77; p = 0.04; R 2 = 0.59) and mortalities (r = −0.80; p = 0.03; R 2 = 0.63) when combining with confounders. Conclusion Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is significantly positively associated whereas the mean vitamin D level is significantly negatively associated with both infection and mortality rate of COVID-19 among Asian countries upon predicting with all confounders.
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