ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused many lifestyle changes, especially in the diet. Policies such as physical distancing and quarantine orders aimed to mitigate to spread of COVID-19 have affected the economy and, therefore, the dietary habits of the people. AIM: The purpose of this study was to analyze the associations between income levels and dietary habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 697 Indonesian adults from various regions in Indonesia. The study was conducted from June to August 2020. Data were obtained through a self-administered online questionnaire including dietary habits, lifestyles, and quality of life data adapted from MyNutriLifeCOVID-19 online survey. To analyze the associations between income levels and dietary habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Chi-square test was used. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Respondents had mean age of 27.56 ± 8.58 years and the majority were women (83.6%). The percentage of people with large-scale social restrictions was 47.5%. Respondents reported that their dietary habits were healthier during the pandemic (46.2%), with the majority categorized as high-and very high-income status (59.1%). From self-reported of the people in Indonesia, there was association between high-income level and selfperceived healthier dietary habits. Higher-income level was also associated with higher frequency of online food/ drink delivery, consuming western diet foods, consuming dietary supplements, and probiotic consumption (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the dietary habits of people with a very high monthly income had eating healthier than before the pandemic. However, it is also related to higher energy, cholesterol, and saturated fat intakes due to consuming high western diet foods. Social inequalities in dietary intake should be considered through promoting a healthy balanced diet with affordable price and healthy food processing in the community.
ABSTRACT
Chemistry laboratory experiments are invaluable tostudents'acquisition of necessary synthetic, analytical, andinstrumental skills during their undergraduate studies. However,the COVID-19 pandemic rendered face-to-face (f2f), in-personteaching laboratory experiences impossible from late 2019-2020and forced educators to rapidly develop new solutions to deliverchemistry laboratory education remotely. Unfortunately, achievinglearning and teaching objectives to the same caliber of in-personexperiments is very difficult through distance learning. Toovercome these hurdles, educators have generated many virtual and remote learning options for not only foundational chemistrycourses but also laboratory experiments. Although the pandemic challenged high-level chemistry education, it has also created anopportunity for both students and educators to be more cognizant of virtual learning opportunities and their potential benefits withinchemistry curriculum. Irrespective of COVID-19, virtual learning techniques, especially virtual lab experiments, can complement f2flaboratories and offer a cost-efficient, safe, and environmentally sustainable alternative to their in-person counterparts.Implementation of virtual and distance learning techniques???including kitchen chemistry and at-home laboratories, prerecordedvideos, live-stream video conferencing, digital lab environment, virtual and augmented reality, and others???can provide a wide-ranging venue to teach chemistry laboratories effectively and encourage diversity and inclusivity in thefield. Despite their relevanceto real-world applications and potential to expand upon fundamental chemical principles, polymer lab experiments areunderrepresented in the virtual platform. Polymer chemistry education can help prepare students for industrial and academicpositions. The impacts of polymers in our daily life can also promote students'interests in science and scientific research. Hence, thetranslation of polymer lab experiments into virtual settings improves the accessibility of polymer chemistry education. Herein, weassess polymer experiments in the emergence of virtual learning environments and provide suggestions for further incorporation ofeffective polymer teaching and learning techniques into virtual settings