Changes in Eating Habits and Sedentary Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Adolescents With Chronic Conditions

  1. Bruna Caruso Mazzolani
  2. Fabiana Infante Smaira
  3. Camilla Astley
  4. Amanda Yuri Iraha
  5. Ana Jessica Pinto
  6. Isabela Gouveia Marques
  7. Milla Cordeiro Amarante
  8. Nathalia Saffioti Rezende
  9. Sofia Mendes Sieczkowska
  10. Tathiane Christine Franco
  11. Luana Cristina do Amaral Miranda
  12. Lívia Lindoso
  13. Alberto Carame Helito
  14. Jane Oba
  15. Ligia Bruni Queiroz
  16. Rosa Maria R. Pereira
  17. Hamilton Roschel
  18. Clovis Artur Silva
  19. Bruno Gualano

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Abstract

Introduction: Among healthy adolescents, school closures and home confinement were shown to increase unhealthier eating habits and sedentary behavior. It remains unknown to which extent the pandemic has impacted the lifestyle of adolescents with chronic conditions. Thus, the aim of this study is to report on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on eating habits and sedentary behavior among adolescents with multiple chronic conditions ( n = 347) from a tertiary, referral hospital vs. healthy peers.

Methods: This observational study was conducted in São Paulo (Brazil) between July and October 2020, period in which a set of social distancing measures to contain the pandemic.

Results: The main findings of this study were that adolescents with chronic conditions and health peers showed important changes in eating habits (e.g., more often cooking and eating in front of television than before quarantine). Also, 86.8% of adolescents with chronic conditions and 91.6% of healthy adolescents reported increasing screen time during pandemic. No major differences were observed between patients and controls.

Conclusions: Adolescents with chronic conditions and healthy peers exposed to pandemic showed substantial changes in lifestyle, stressing the need for specific care to mitigate poor eating habits and excessive sedentary behavior for patients and healthy adolescents.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.3389/fped.2021.714120
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.16.21255582: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Clinical Hospital (approval number: 31314220.5.0000.0068).
    Consent: The consent form was signed digitally by all adolescents and their legal guardians before the beginning of the survey.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    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:
    This study has limitations, however. First, the cross-sectional design does not allow inferring causative relationships between lifestyle changes and pandemic. Second, the use of self-reported questionnaire may reflect in some degree of imprecision on data reporting. Third, the relatively low number of patients for each disease did not allow for disease-specific sub-analysis. Finally, as a result of the suspension of face-to-face health care in our tertiary hospital (which was adapted to accommodate 1,000 hospital beds exclusively for COVID-19),(Miethke-Morais, et al., 2020) patients’ attendance to in-hospital sessions were not possible, limiting the assessment of more in-depth clinical variables. In conclusion, adolescents with chronic conditions exposed to social distancing measures due to COVID-19 pandemic showed substantial changes in lifestyle. The findings from this study stress the need for specific care for these patients to mitigate poor eating habits and excessive sedentary behavior.

    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.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.04.16.21255582v1 on medRxiv