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University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, university students’ eating habits may change due to the stress caused by mandatory full lockdown and social isolation, as well as uncertainty about their academic future. An analysis of 332 Portuguese university students from different areas of study was carrie...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565997/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36232047 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912750 |
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author | Monteiro, Mónica Ferreira-Pêgo, Cíntia |
author_facet | Monteiro, Mónica Ferreira-Pêgo, Cíntia |
author_sort | Monteiro, Mónica |
collection | PubMed |
description | In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, university students’ eating habits may change due to the stress caused by mandatory full lockdown and social isolation, as well as uncertainty about their academic future. An analysis of 332 Portuguese university students from different areas of study was carried out through an online questionnaire to verify if the lockdown period caused by COVID-19 had any influence on the students’ eating habits, as well as if this differed among students from health sciences courses and those from other areas. We found that, compared to a normal semester of classes, during the lockdown period, healthier eating habits were adopted, characterized by a decrease in meal delivery platforms used, self-reported consumption of fast-food, pre-cooked meals, foods rich in sugar and salt, and sugar-sweetened and alcoholic beverages, as well as increased self-reported consumption of vegetables, fruit and legumes, and physical exercise. Thus, although the lockdown led to stress and uncertainty, university students were able to take care of their eating habits and lifestyle, probably as a way of feeling stronger and safer against this disease. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9565997 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95659972022-10-15 University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic Monteiro, Mónica Ferreira-Pêgo, Cíntia Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, university students’ eating habits may change due to the stress caused by mandatory full lockdown and social isolation, as well as uncertainty about their academic future. An analysis of 332 Portuguese university students from different areas of study was carried out through an online questionnaire to verify if the lockdown period caused by COVID-19 had any influence on the students’ eating habits, as well as if this differed among students from health sciences courses and those from other areas. We found that, compared to a normal semester of classes, during the lockdown period, healthier eating habits were adopted, characterized by a decrease in meal delivery platforms used, self-reported consumption of fast-food, pre-cooked meals, foods rich in sugar and salt, and sugar-sweetened and alcoholic beverages, as well as increased self-reported consumption of vegetables, fruit and legumes, and physical exercise. Thus, although the lockdown led to stress and uncertainty, university students were able to take care of their eating habits and lifestyle, probably as a way of feeling stronger and safer against this disease. MDPI 2022-10-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9565997/ /pubmed/36232047 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912750 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Monteiro, Mónica Ferreira-Pêgo, Cíntia University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic |
title | University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_full | University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_fullStr | University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_short | University Students Eating Habits: Normal Semester vs. Lockdown Period Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_sort | university students eating habits: normal semester vs. lockdown period caused by covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565997/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36232047 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912750 |
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