The Role of Selected Psychological Factors in Healthy-Sustainable Food Consumption Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent precautions and dispositions adopted have triggered substantial changes in daily health-related behaviors, including food consumption habits. The psychological impact of the pandemic has been considered one of the factors affecting this transition and requiring consideration when targeting healthy-sustainable behavior preservation. The present study describes the results of a survey conducted on a convenience sample of Italian residents (n = 2272) during the first phases of pandemic. The aim was to explore the daily nutritional choices and behaviors and their transformations that occurred along with the associations with psychological factors (i.e., subjective well-being, and depression, anxiety and stress symptoms). An indicator for healthy-sustainable transition (HST index) was constructed and revealed diffused transformation in dietary habits, with a large segment of the sample adopting healthier and more sustainable dietary behaviors and others showing reduced healthy-sustainable food choices. Informative relationships with the psychological variables were then found from the correlational and regression analyses. Lower levels of anxiety, depression and stress symptomatology and higher perceived subjective well-being were significantly associated with healthier-sustainable food consumption behaviors. These findings shed light on the crucial areas to be considered in future institutional interventions, ultimately ensuring favorable conditions for both healthy diet behaviors and sustainable food consumption choices.

Tell Me What You Waste and I’ll Tell You Who You Are: An Eight-Country Comparison of Consumers’ Food Waste Habits

“…The scientific literature has explored the relationships between dietary patterns, their drivers of choice, and pro-environmental behavior, such as an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption and a decrease in meat intake [21][22][23]. Many studies have analyzed dietary choices in relation to personal factors such as instruction level [24][25][26], personal psychological factors [26][27][28], personal motivations, attitudes, health concerns [29][30][31], the availability of healthy food [32], and exposure to news and advertising related to food consumption [33]. Among the individual factors, mindfulness, considered as the ability to live in the present moment without judging the situation, seems to be relevant to the definition of dietary choices [34][35][36].…”

Wilson Disease and the COVID-19 pandemic: exploring patients’ mental health and vaccination attitudes in a longitudinal study

“…The COVID-19 pandemic caused lifestyle changes such as less physical activity, social isolation, and disrupted sleep patterns, which affected dietary habits and led to a decline in mental health ( Caroppo et al, 2021 ). A study found a correlation between healthier-sustainable food consumption and lower anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms ( Zanatta et al, 2022 ). Moderate-intensity physical activity, including walking, jogging, and house cleaning, may also be beneficial ( Marconcin et al, 2022 ).…”

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“…The results of some studies indicate that the pandemic could have impacted sustainable food consumption negatively. Zanatta et al (2022) claim that among the respondents who took part in the study, the biggest part did not change their eating habits during the coronavirus, and among those who did, there were both positive and negative cases in sustainable food consumption.…”