Dietary Patterns and Dietary Recommendations Achievement From Latin American College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the diet quality of different dietary patterns among college students from Latin American countries, including vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional, observational, multicenter study was conducted including a non- probabilistic sample of university students from 10 countries. University students were invited to participate in the study through social network platforms. Participants were self-reported to have followed a specific dietary pattern; either the Prudent diet, Western diet, Ovo-dairy-vegetarian diet, Fish-vegetarian diet, Strict vegetarian diet (vegan) or other. The last three patterns (vegetarians and vegans) were grouped as following a plant-based diet. A self-assessment survey was used to evaluate healthy eating habits using a questionnaire with values between 1 (do not consume) and 5 (consume) for a total of 9–45 points (higher values represent better eating habits). Unhealthy habits were assessed with nine questions. A total of 4,809 students filled out the questionnaire, and the majority of them were females (73.7%). A high percentage have been in lockdown for more than 5 months and were in lockdown when the survey was released. 74.3% were self-reported to follow a prudent diet, while 11.4% reported following a western dietary pattern and 8.8% a plant-based diet. When compliance with healthy and unhealthy dietary habits was analyzed, although all groups had low compliance, the plant-based diet group (56.09 ± 6.11) performed better than the Western diet group (48.03 ± 5.99). The total diet quality score was significantly higher for plant-based diet followers, who also tended to better achieve the recommendations than omnivorous students, especially the ones following a western diet. These results present evidence that young adults such as college-aged students have unhealthy dietary habits. However, the ones who follow a plant-based diet such as vegetarians and vegans exhibit better scores and healthier dietary conducts.

Modification of eating habits and lifestyle during COVID-19 in university students from Mexico and Peru

“…By relating the sex variable, we found that women had greater changes in their diet by 90.49% compared to authors such as Murillo et al ( 20 ) and Miller et al ( 27 ), who mention not finding a significant relationship. In contrast, Ferrara et al ( 28 ) mention that being a woman was a predictor (OR:2.7) of a greater risk of unhealthy eating behaviors, both before and after the pandemic; and being older during the pandemic.…”

“…This agrees with Villaseñor et al ( 19 ), who reported that during COVID-19 confinement, there was an increase in the consumption of unhealthy foods among Mexicans. The study by Murillo et al ( 20 ), which included students from 10 countries, found a greater probability of following a prudent eating pattern when living in Mexico (OR:1.57) and Peru (OR:1.65).…”

“…Among the limitations that the study had were related to filling out the questionnaire in both countries since it was applied at a time when the academic cycles were closing. Another limitation is that the respondents were mostly from Mexico and female, which must be taken into account when generalizing the results; however, it is worth mentioning that the studies ( 18 , 20–24 , 26–28 ) had a higher frequency of female sex.…”

Comparison of Consumption of Pulses in Two Seasons of the Year in Chile

“…Another study conducted in Latin America, which included university students, showed that individuals following a plant-based diet had the highest consumption of legumes compared to other students following other diets such as western, prudent, etc. [28].…”