The Impact of COVID-19 quarantine on dietary habits and physical activity in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments around the world to impose strict hygiene and national lockdown measures, which in turn has changed the dietary and lifestyle habits of the world’s population. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate whether dietary and physical activity behaviors of Saudi Arabia’s adult population changed during the COVID-19 quarantine.Methods: An electronic questionnaire was distributed on social media between June and July 2020 and was completed by 2,255 participants (24% aged 30–39 years old, 64% female, 68% university educated).Results: Over 40% and 45% of participants reported eating and snacking more, respectively, which led to weight gain in 38%. Most participants reported that they consumed home-cooked (73%) and healthy meals (47%), while only 7% reported that they consumed foods from restaurants. Feelings of boredom and emptiness (44%) and the availability of time for preparing meals (40%) were the main reasons for changing dietary habits. Honey (43%) and vitamin C (50%) were the most consumed immune-boosting food and dietary supplement, respectively. COVID-19 also had a negative impact on physical activity, lowering the practice in 52% subjects, which was associated with significant weight gain (p <0.001).Conclusion: Assessing the changes to the population’s dietary habits and physical activity during the lockdown will help predict the outcome of the population’s future health and wellbeing after the pandemic.

Impact of Covid-19 on Lifestyle Related Behaviour-A Cross-Sectional Study on Population Residing at Urban Field Practice Area, Mysore, Karnataka

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Burden of COVID-19 infection and lockdown measures on individuals with chronic diseases in Saudi Arabia: A national population-based study

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Implications of COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable consumption patterns. Evidence from Iasi County, Romania

“…With respect to the analysis of food waste in respondents' consumption, it is somehow normal that the amount of waste should increase during the pandemic period, once food consumption was mainly done at home through cooked food (Jribi et al, 2020). In the literature, it is well known that, during the pandemic, the consumption of cooked food increased (Borsellino et al, 2020;Wachyuni and Wiweka, 2020;Bakhsh et al, 2021;Gerritsen et al, 2021;Jaeger et al, 2021;Koletzko et al, 2021) and, along with it, the amount of waste (at least in the first part of the pandemic-the beginning of the year 2020) (Aldaco et al, 2020;Jribi et al, 2020). During this period, some consumers seem to attain a much better equilibrium in terms of food waste (Pappalardo et al, 2020;Iranmanesh et al, 2022), while others still do not even consider food waste a real problem in terms of economics, social, and environmental impacts (Pocol et al, 2020).…”