The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Saudi Adults' Behavior Regarding Food Literacy and Food Consumption

Background The coronavirus pandemic has forced worldwide closures, especially of restaurants closed, which partly contributed to people all over the world changing the way they choose and prepare foods. Objective The objective of this study was to compare changes in behavioral food literacy (planning, selecting, and preparing food) and food consumption before and during the COVID-19 crisis in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Design This was a cross-sectional study, with data from an online survey made in UAntwerpen Qualtrics Accounts and collected from April-June 2020. The study was part of the International Corona Cooking Survey. Results There were 2788 respondents (83%, n = 2323 females) who reported that the COVID-19 home lockdown had positively affected all their behavioral food literacy components (all p<0.05) except feeling confident about cooking a variety of healthy meals in which the difference was not significant (p>0.05); however, its impact on their food consumption was varied. There was a noticeable positive increase in fruit intake (Z= -3.330, p=0.001) and a noticeable positive decrease in processed meat (Z= -11.375, p<0.001) and sweetened drinks consumption (Z= -2.403, p<0.05). There were simultaneously noticeable adverse effects represented in the reduction in the consumption of the vegetable group (Z= -3.447, p=0.001) and an increase in sweets consumption (Z= -2.268, p<0.05). However, the overall impacts of these changes as measured by the Hedges’ g measure indicated a small effect (Hedges’ g = 0.04, 95% CI (-0.07, -0.16)). Discussion and conclusions Even though the pandemic may have created a sense of responsibility for one's health and increased people's nutritional awareness, the Saudi population may be still a long way from having healthy eating habits. Public health campaigns need to increase the population's level of nutritional awareness, educate them about the meaning of healthy eating, and how they can achieve that by advocating the national dietary guidelines and providing reliable and accurate information by authorized official bodies.