Changes in Eating Habits and Lifestyles in a Peruvian Population during Social Isolation for the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Abstract
Background. Peru has one of the highest infection and death rates in the world for the COVID-19 pandemic. The government implemented house confinement measures with probable consequences on lifestyle, particularly affecting eating habits, physical activity, sleep quality, and mental health. Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess the lifestyles, physical activity, and sleep characteristics, as well as changes in eating habits in a Peruvian population during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed. We analyzed Peruvian adults based on an online self-administered questionnaire divided into sociodemographic, anthropometrics, COVID-19 diagnosis reported, lifestyle habits, and frequency of consumption of foods. Results. During confinement for COVID-19, 1176 participants were studied. Of these, most reported weight gain (1 to 3 kg) and 35.7% were overweight. The lifestyles habits showed that 54.8% reported doing physical activity and 37.2% sleep less. The Peruvian sample presented a main meal pattern of breakfast (95.7%), lunch (97.5%), and dinner (89.1%). Likewise, eating habits before and during COVID-19 pandemic showed that vegetables (OR:1.56, CI95% 1.21–200), fruit (OR: 1.42, CI95% 1.10–1.81), legumes (OR:1.67, CI95% 1.23–2.28), and eggs (OR: 2.00, CI95% 1.52–2.65) presented significant consumption increase during social isolation, while bakery products (OR: 0.74, CI95% 0.56–0.97), meat, snack, refreshment, and fast food decreased in consumption. Other foods showed no significant differences. Conclusion. This study showed an important frequency of overweight and sleep changes. There was a slight increase in physical activity despite the social isolation measures and an increase in healthy eating habits; nevertheless, the majority reported gaining weight.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.08.21252979: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved by the Ethics in Research Committee of the Universidad Peruana Unión (No. 2020-CEUPeU-00013). 2.2. Procedure: The questionnaire was applied from July 16 to August 31, 2020 (period in which the Peruvian population was in partial confinement) using the Google form platform and disseminated through social networks (Facebook and Whastapp) and institutional mailing lists.
Consent: On the initial page, the participants were explained the voluntary nature of their participation with informed consent, as well as the justification, objectives, possible risks and benefits of the study before continuing with the instrument itself. 2.3.Randomiza… SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.08.21252979: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved by the Ethics in Research Committee of the Universidad Peruana Unión (No. 2020-CEUPeU-00013). 2.2. Procedure: The questionnaire was applied from July 16 to August 31, 2020 (period in which the Peruvian population was in partial confinement) using the Google form platform and disseminated through social networks (Facebook and Whastapp) and institutional mailing lists.
Consent: On the initial page, the participants were explained the voluntary nature of their participation with informed consent, as well as the justification, objectives, possible risks and benefits of the study before continuing with the instrument itself. 2.3.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Statistical analysis: The data analysis was performed in RStudio v4.0.2 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria; http://www.R-project.org). RStudiosuggested: (RStudio, RRID:SCR_000432)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:The main limitation of this work is the lack of representativeness of the population sample. Therefore, it is not possible to expand the results to the population of the country. There is also an over-representation of younger individuals (< 25 years). Moreover, all data collected are self-reported and this could make them not completely reliable, especially when it comes to reporting behaviors for which there may be a social stigma (e.g., alcohol and tobacco consumption). Another limitation could be the lack of information about religious practices which could have influenced diet and lifestyle changes. In conclusion, this study in a Peruvian population showed an important frequency of overweight and sleep disorders. On the other hand, efforts to included physical activity despite the social isolation measures, an increase in health eating habits, but nevertheless a majority reported gaining weight. Future studies should consider additionally potential factors, starting with the observation in this study that most participants had a changed sleep pattern during social isolation, and potentially including other factors like stress, type of exercise, pedometer step counts, and portion sizes.
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.
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