Modifications of eating behavior, physical activity and mental health due to COVID-19 quarantine in young adults

ABSTRACT

In Peru, one of the first interventions to flattened the epidemiologic curve of the pandemic was quarantine that changed eating behavior, physical activity and mental health of the population. Objective: to determine modifications in eating behavior, physical activity and mental health in young adults before and after the quarantine. Methods: cohort study involving 384 adults from 18 to 24 years of age that were subjected to a virtual interview and application of an international questionnaire to evaluate changings in eating behavior, physical activity and mental health contrasted by Chi square. Results: an increase in the distribution of daily foods [breakfast (p<0.001), morning snack (p<0.05), lunch (p<0.001), afternoon snack (p<0.001), dinner (p<0.05)] and an increase in ingestion of fruits (p=0.005) and reduction in the ingestion of fast food (p<0.05) and candies (p=0.03). Physical activity decreases specially in males vs females (28.4% vs. 25.3%) and there was a reduction in the total number of sleep hours, mental health was severely affected. Conclusions: quarantine induced variations in eating behavior, reduction in physical activity and increase in mental health disorders. These modifications put the population at risk for weight gain or obesity and eventually to non-transmissible diseases.