Factors Associated with Dietary Change since the Outbreak of COVID-19 in Japan

Abstract

In Japan, dietary habits have greatly changed since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak; we examined factors related to dietary changes. An online cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in November 2020 among 6,000 Japanese adults (aged 20–64 years) registered with a research company and gathered data on demographics, socioeconomic factors, medical history, COVID-19 status of the respondent’s family and neighbors, fear of COVID-19, and changes in lifestyle and dietary habits since the COVID-19 outbreak. To the question “Have you made healthier changes to your dietary habits compared with the dietary habits before the spread of COVID-19 (1 year ago, November 2019)?”, 1,215 (20.3%), 491 (8.2%), and 4294 (71.6%) participants answered that their dietary habits were healthier, unhealthier, and unchanged, respectively. Healthier and unhealthier dietary habits were associated with greater fear of COVID-19, altered exercise and sleep times, and smoking. Unhealthy habits were positively associated with living alone, decreasing household income, colleagues with COVID-19, stress, and weight loss/gain. Annual household income, changing household income, COVID-19 in friends, health literacy, exercise frequency, weight loss, and starting smoking were positively associated with healthier dietary changes. The generalizability of these results and strategies to inculcate healthy diets in this “new normal” should be investigated.

Relationship between Psychological Status and Health Behaviors during the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic in Japanese Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…Balanced dietary habits are the most common health behavior. Simpo et al [16], in their study on changes in lifestyle and dietary habits during the novel COVID-19 infection epidemic in Japanese adults aged 20-64 years, found that healthy dietary habits were associated with anxiety about COVID-19, changes in exercise and sleep time, and smoking, which approximated the findings of the present study. Low nutrition in old age is a significant cause of frailty and sarcopenia, and older adults need to pay more attention to their dietary habits than younger people to maintain a healthy life.…”

Lifestyle changes during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic impact metabolic dysfunction–associated fatty liver disease

“…Results of multivariate analyses: Predictors of MAFLD developmentas other lifestyle habits, would differ by age 11,12. As expected, our results were consistent with those of Alpers et al27 One possible rea-…”

“…22 Additionally, recent evidence revealed that lifestyle changes post-COVID-19 were associated not only with obesity 3,4 and obesity-related diseases (NAFLD 23 ) but also with less healthy dietary habits. 12 In this study, we confirmed routine late-night meals as a predictor of MAFLD development using multivariate analysis of interaction effects (Table S3). These results suggested that consuming late-…”

Living through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impact and Lessons on Dietary Behavior and Physical Well-Being

“…Plenty of research has been conducted since the COVID-19 pandemic began, particularly on dietary and eating habit changes. Based on an online cross-sectional questionnaire survey conducted at one time point in November 2020 when the Japanese government issued stay-at-home requests, only 8.2% adults out of the 6000 respondents experienced an unhealthier change from their initial dietary habits as they live alone with higher stress levels from the lack of social support, while 71.6% reported unchanged diets [ 74 ]. The unchanged dietary habit was also noted from 34 provinces across China with 71.4% of the participants noting no changes in their appetite [ 75 ].…”