The Impact of Isolation Measures Due to COVID-19 on Energy Intake and Physical Activity Levels in Australian University Students

  1. Linda A. Gallo
  2. Tania F. Gallo
  3. Sophia L. Young
  4. Karen M. Moritz
  5. Lisa K. Akison

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Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in physical isolation measures in many parts of the world. In Australia, nationwide restrictions included staying at home, unless seeking medical care, providing care, purchasing food, undertaking exercise, or attending work in an essential service. All undergraduate university classes transitioned to online, mostly home-based learning. We, therefore, examined the effect of isolation measures during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia (March/April) on diet (24-h recall) and physical activity (Active Australia Survey) patterns in third-year biomedical students. Findings were compared with students enrolled in the same course in the previous two years. In females, but not males, energy intake was ~20% greater during the pandemic, and snacking frequency and energy density of consumed snacks also increased compared with 2018 and 2019. Physical activity was impacted for both sexes during the pandemic with ~30% fewer students achieving “sufficient” levels of activity, defined by at least 150 min over at least five sessions, compared with the previous two years. In a follow-up study six to eight weeks later (14–18% response rate), during gradual easing of nationwide restrictions albeit continued gym closures and online learning, higher energy intake in females and reduced physical activity levels in both sexes persisted. These data demonstrate the health impacts of isolation measures, with the potential to affect long-term diet and activity behaviours.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/nu12061865
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.10.20076414: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Study design and participants: This observational study was approved by The University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (Project Approval: 2016-02-066-PRE-3) and conducted in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (Australia).
    Consent: For each year, students who provided written informed consent were given a unique code (and password for the online diet questionnaire).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableInclusion criteria was 19-27 years of age (214 males and 295 females).

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analyses: All analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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 10.1101/2020.05.10.20076414v1 on medRxiv