Clinical Nutrition Open Science (Jun 2024)
An exploratory study about healthcare professionals and students food consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract
Summary: Background & Aims: It is foreseeable that behaviors will be modified in the pandemic, including food consumption, which can influence the quality of the diet. And it is already known that a healthy diet influences the immune system, as cells depend on vitamins and minerals to function properly. Therefore, the objective is to verify the food consumption of health professionals and students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Rio de Janeiro. Methods: Cross-sectional, observational and descriptive study. Students and health professionals were invited to participate in the study through electronic media dissemination. Data were collected through a self-completed online questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions about personal and socioeconomic characteristics, whether you have already been infected with COVID-19, questions about sleep, mood, supplement use and food consumption, with questions from the Brazilian Ministry of Health mini-questionnaire, as well as a question about change, in the context of the pandemic, food consumption according to the level of processing (in natura, minimally processed, processed and ultra-processed). For each question analyzed, comparisons between non-cases and prevalent cases of COVID-19 were presented. Results: A total of 362 participants were evaluated, with a predominance of females (82.60%), aged between 18 and 40 years. A higher percentage of participants, regardless of COVID-19 prevalence, reported consuming healthy foods the day before compared to unhealthy foods. On the other hand, when asked about the increase in the frequency and/or amount of food intake according to the level of processing, an increase in the consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods was especially observed. Another important finding of our study was the participants' perception of a change in mood and sleep, and that this change may have led to changes in food consumption. Finally, we highlighted the regular use of supplements during the COVID-19 pandemic by more than half of the participants. Conclusions: Although a higher percentage of participants, regardless of the prevalence of COVID-19, reported consumption of healthy foods in the previous day, when asked about the increase in food consumption, in the context of the pandemic, according to the level of processing, there was an increase especially by the majority of processed and ultra-processed food participants.
