Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Behaviors of Higher Education Students in Ghana: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Stressful events can significantly impact health behaviors of tertiary students in various ways. Many studies reported adverse alterations in health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is limited knowledge about students from sub-Saharan African countries. Therefore, this study aimed to assess effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health behaviors of Ghanaian tertiary students, with an emphasis on the association between sleep and other health behaviors. A cross-sectional study with eligible tertiary students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana (n = 129) was conducted. An online survey assessed quality and duration of sleep, financial stress, dietary risk, alcohol misuse, and physical exercise using validated tools. Health behaviors did not differ by gender. The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected health behaviors for many students including dietary intake (20.2%), sleep quality (20.2%) and duration (81.4%), alcohol consumption (3.1%), exercise frequency (4.1%), and exercise intensity (38%). Shorter sleep duration was linked with greater alcohol misuse scores (p < 0.05). A majority of the students (56%) had increased financial stress during the pandemic. This study contributes important insights into the effects that stressful events such as a pandemic have on the health of higher education students in sub-Saharan Africa.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Intake, Dietary Behavior, Mental Health, and Academic Performance of a Ghanaian University Students

“…Our findings showed that every student in the research experienced stress in varying degrees, and that about six out of every 10 students experienced stress induced by COVID-19 pandemic. This finding is similar to earlier studies in China [34][35][36] and Ghana [37][38][39][40]. Collectively, these findings suggest that COVID-19 pandemic resulted in elevated levels of stress among university students across the globe.…”

“…Our finding is further buttressed by an earlier study which suggested that higher GAD levels among students were due to the inability to cope well with the challenges that came with COVID-19 [46]. Additionally, another study indicated that COVID-19 pandemic made a significant negative impact on mental health among university students [39,40,47]. COVID-19 changed education dramatically in Ghana and across the globe, whereby teaching is undertaken either in restricted classroom environment or remotely on digital platforms [6,7].…”

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Agri-Food Systems in West Africa

“…Many studies suggest that the pandemic affected negatively food consumption patterns and diets, especially during the period of lockdown [48,53]. However, other studies posit that attention to health and healthy diets, especially those presumed to boost the immune system, increased during the pandemic [59,60,67,72].…”

“…Concerning food utilisation, the focus of the studies is mainly on diet quality and dietary diversity, and food safety. The pandemic affected diet quality with a reduction in the consumption of many health-enhancing products [60,112] as well as an increase in the use of unhealthy foods [60] and alcohol [53]. This, as well as the reduction in physical activity/exercise especially during the lockdown [53], caused an increase in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases.…”

“…The pandemic affected diet quality with a reduction in the consumption of many health-enhancing products [60,112] as well as an increase in the use of unhealthy foods [60] and alcohol [53]. This, as well as the reduction in physical activity/exercise especially during the lockdown [53], caused an increase in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases. However, there was, at the same time, an increase in attention to and interest in health [59,60,72].…”