Behavioral Changes During COVID-19 Confinement in France: A Web-Based Study

Abstract

Background: A global pandemic due to COVID-19 emerged in November 2019 and hit France in early March 2020. It not only resulted in a loss of lives, but also in very strict confinement measures. The objective of this study was to understand what the determinants of the changes in participants’ behavior and mental state were during the confinement. Methods: An online survey was launched on 23 April 2020 and closed on 7 May 2020. The final sample included 1454 participants from 24 to 65 years old. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were then performed. Results: In total, 28.7% reported having a more balanced diet, against 17.1% with a less balanced diet, 22.7% of respondents reported an increased alcohol consumption, as opposed to only 12.2% declaring a decrease, and 11.2% of respondents increased their tobacco consumption, while 6.3% decreased it. In total, 50.6% of the participants reported being more depressed, stressed, or irritable since the beginning of the lockdown. Confinement had a negative effect on every behavior studied in this survey, except for nutrition. We also found that negative mental state changes were strongly associated with nutrition, sleep, physical activity and alcohol consumption changes.

Changes in health behaviors, mental and physical health among older adults under severe lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain

“…In our study, the frequency of alcohol drinkers who increased and that of those who decreased alcohol intake with lockdown was very similar, around 15%. Compared to other surveys, the frequency of increased alcohol consumption was much lower in our population than in adults in Germany (34.7%) (51), Australia (20.0% (52) to 30.8% (53)) or the USA (29%) (54), and more similar to that reported in other Spanish (14,22), French (45,55), and Italian surveys (56). In fact, in these studies, declining alcohol consumption during quarantine was more common than increasing it.…”

“…Results for changes in diet quality are difficult to compare because of differences in diet assessment across studies, with some showing the proportion of those who increased or decreased the consumption of certain products (11,15,56,57), others asking participants to report their self-perceived changes in quality (55,58), and only a few studies providing validated diet quality scores (17,18,59). Even for the latter, comparisons are limited due to the use of different scales; for instance, in a Spanish study, confinement was associated with a mean increase of 0.8 points in the MEDAS score (17), in one French study it was associated with a mean reduction of 0.32 points in the simplified PNNS-GS2 index (18), while in another study it was associated with equivalent increases or decreases in the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (59).…”

COVID-19 lockdown and lifestyles: A narrative review

“…In some situations staying at home encouraged many individuals to eat a fresh, home-made, balanced diet 32 , as evidenced by a reduction in the consumption of fast food 33 , fewer purchases of ready-made meals, and by the dominance of online/in-person grocery shopping as the major source of food and food purchases in some countries 16,34 . A study from China showed that families that did online shopping included a greater variety of foods in their diet than in normal circumstances 35 .…”

Would we recover better sleep at the end of Covid-19? A relative improvement observed at the population level with the end of the lockdown in France

“…In France, the confinement started on 17 March 2020 and lasted for 8 weeks, until 11 May 2020. This period had negative effects on many health behaviors [ 9 ] and was especially marked by the deterioration of the quality of sleep in the general population. From the very beginning of the confinement, three-quarters of the people reported trouble sleeping, compared with about a half in the last general population survey conducted before the confinement [ 5 , 10 ].…”