Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies "GF Ingrassia", University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy.
Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania, 95129 Catania, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 20;20(3):1976. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20031976.
Controversy exists about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dietary habits, with studies demonstrating both benefits and drawbacks of this period. We analyzed Google Trends data on specific terms and arguments related to different foods (i.e., fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, milk, red meat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages) in order to evaluate the interest of Italian people before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Joinpoint regression models were applied to identify the possible time points at which public interest in foods changed (i.e., joinpoints). Interestingly, public interest in specific food categories underwent substantial changes during the period under examination. While some changes did not seem to be related to the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., legumes and red meat), public interest in fruit, vegetables, milk, and whole grains increased significantly, especially during the first lockdown. It should be noted, however, that the interest in food-related issues returned to prepandemic levels after the first lockdown period. Thus, more efforts and ad hoc designed studies should be encouraged to evaluate the duration and direction of the COVID-19 pandemic's influence.
关于 COVID-19 大流行对饮食习惯的影响存在争议，一些研究表明这一时期既有好处也有弊端。我们分析了与不同食物（即水果、蔬菜、豆类、全谷物、坚果和种子、牛奶、红肉、加工肉类和含糖饮料）相关的特定术语和论点的谷歌趋势数据，以评估意大利人在 COVID-19 大流行之前和期间对这些食物的兴趣。应用 Joinpoint 回归模型来确定食物兴趣发生变化的可能时间点（即 Joinpoint）。有趣的是，特定食物类别的公众兴趣在研究期间发生了重大变化。虽然一些变化似乎与 COVID-19 大流行无关（即豆类和红肉），但公众对水果、蔬菜、牛奶和全谷物的兴趣显著增加，尤其是在第一次封锁期间。然而，应当指出的是，在第一次封锁期过后，与食品相关问题的兴趣又回到了大流行前的水平。因此，应该鼓励更多的努力和专门设计的研究来评估 COVID-19 大流行影响的持续时间和方向。
