A cross-sectional study of the association between frequency of telecommuting and unhealthy dietary habits among Japanese workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

  1. Yoshiko Kubo
  2. Tomohiro Ishimaru
  3. Ayako Hino
  4. Masako Nagata
  5. Kazunori Ikegami
  6. Seiichiro Tateishi
  7. Mayumi Tsuji
  8. Shinya Matsuda
  9. Yoshihisa Fujino

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

2.

Objective

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, telecommuting has become a new way of working that has not only changed individuals’ work, but also their health and lifestyle. We examined the relationship between telecommuting frequency and unhealthy dietary habits among Japanese workers.

Methods

A total of 33,302 workers completed an Internet survey about telecommuting and dietary habits. Data from 13,468 office workers who telecommuted were analyzed. Telecommuting frequency during the COVID-19 pandemic was extracted from a questionnaire. The odds ratios (ORs) of four types of dietary habits, namely, skipping breakfast, solitary eating, lower meal frequency, and meal substitution associated with telecommuting frequency were estimated using multilevel logistic regression nested in the prefecture of residence to control for differences in residential area.

Results

The multivariate OR of skipping breakfast was 1.15 (95% CI: 1.03–1.29, p=0.013) for participants who telecommuted in excess of four days per week compared to those who rarely telecommuted. Similarly, the OR of solitary eating, lower meal frequency and meal substitution were 1.44 (95%CI: 1.28–1.63, p<0.001), 2.39 (95%CI: 1.66–3.44, p<0.001), and 1.26 (95%CI: 1.04–1.51, p=0.015) for those who telecommuted in excess of four days per week compared to those who rarely telecommuted. There was a statistically significant increase in the dose-response trend in ORs of solitary eating (p for trend <0.001), lower meal frequency (p for trend <0.001), and meal substitution (p for trend =0.001) with increasing telecommuting frequency.

Conclusion

Telecommuters may develop unhealthy dietary habits, indicating the need for strategies to help telecommuters manage their nutrition and diet.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1101/2021.06.28.21259558v2 on medRxiv
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.28.21259558: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: This study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (reference No. R2-079 and R3-006).
    Consent: Participants provided informed consent by completing a form on the survey website.
    Sex as a biological variableA total of 13,468 (6,896 men and 6,572 women) of the remaining 27,036 participants who stated that they predominantly perform desk work were included in the analysis.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All analyses were conducted using Stata (Stata Statistical Software: Release 16; StataCorp LLC, TX, USA).
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    There are several limitations to this study. First, while we found an association between poor dietary habits and telecommuting frequency, these relationships may not be solely related to the impact of telecommuting, but the COVID-19 pandemic at large and a variety of other consequences such as staying at home and reduced interaction with people. Second, because this was a cross-sectional study, we cannot prove causality. However, we believe that it is logically unlikely that dietary habits could directly affect telecommuting. Third, we examined both the frequency of telecommuting and eating habits in the questionnaire. Dietary surveys are associated with several well-known disadvantages, including under-reporting, over-reporting, and bias.[34,35] In addition, we did not specify a time period in our questions. Because of the inter-day variability in dietary intake, the impact of these factors on our results is unclear.[36]

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.06.28.21259558v1 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1002/1348-9585.12281