The impact of COVID‐19 confinement on the eating habits and lifestyle changes: A cross sectional study

Novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) emerged in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China causing severe respiratory infections and resulting in millions admissions to hospital and over a million deaths worldwide. Authorities imposed protective measures including confinement to flatten curves of casualties resulted in sudden lifestyle and eating habit changes. The objectives of this study were to observe the impact of the COVID‐19 lockdown on eating behavior and lifestyle of the Kurdish population in Iraqi Kurdistan. A structured cross‐sectional study was conducted from 1st to 14th of June when the lockdown finished with three different sections. Section one (6 questions) included socio‐demographic information section two (11 questions) composed of dietary behavior information including a) Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence using 14‐scaled items with a MD screener tool ranging from 0 to 14 b) and sections three (12 questions) composed of lifestyle habit changes such as physical activity, sleeping behavior, and smoking habit. The total number of included respondents was 2,137. The results showed that 12.0% (256) of participants stated that their lifestyle was improved, whereas 50.9% (1,087) declared their lifestyle deteriorated. In particular, the frequency of physical activity was decreased (McNemar value = 60.53, p <.001) and sleeping hours were significantly increased during lockdown (McNemar value = 447.93, p <.001). Regarding eating habits, it was noticed that 29.3% and 14.3% felt that appetite increased and decreased, respectively. The appetite change during lockdown was significantly associated with age (p =.0001), gender (p =.001), city (p =.007), and BMI (p =.001). Similarly, 32.4% reported weight gain. In conclusion, this study is among the earliest studies showing the effect of COVID‐19 on eating behavior and lifestyle changes. COVID‐19 confinement had a significant effect on lifestyle particularly reducing physical activity and changing eating habits.