COVID-19 and diet: efforts towards a balanced diet and sustainable nutrition among university students in Pakistan

Abstract

Nutrition is an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle for all individuals, including adolescents. The objective of this cross-sectional descriptive survey study was to investigate university students’ awareness of immunity enhancing foods, food nutritive values, and eating practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 839 university students from four different universities in Pakistan participated in the study from October 2021 to January 2022, 397 of which were male and 442 were female. A total of 419 students were studying in medical disciplines while 420 were non-medical students. The students had significant knowledge (p < 0.05) about COVID-19, and nutritional habits were seen in both medical and non-medical students. Results showed that medical students (n-201) were slightly more aware of immunity-enhancing foods and the nutritive values of foods compared to engineering students (n-79). However, eating practices were generally poorly adopted by all of the university students. Male and female students were not significantly different in their mean replies to questions on the nutritive value of food or in their eating habits. Healthy eating practices will aid university students in preventing illnesses connected to nutrition as well as enhancing their immune systems and nutritional well-being both during and post-pandemic. In light of these results, suggestions and implications for nutritional advice and education were explored.

Keywords

• Pandemic
• Immune system
• University students
• Healthy food
• Eating practices
• Nutritive value