Mohammed Salah Gabal Hebat-Allah, Manzour Ayat F
Community, Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
BMC Nutr. 2024 Mar 19;10(1):52. doi: 10.1186/s40795-024-00852-y.
The 2019 recent Coronavirus is without a doubt one of the most complicated viruses to ever pose a threat to humanity. Numerous viral containment strategies forced sedentary behaviors and dietary changes that would-otherwise- increase the chances of acquiring non-communicable diseases.
The objectives of the current study are to identify any changes in eating behaviors through the Mediterranean Diet Adherence in a sample of Egyptians throughout the COVID-19 era.
A cross-sectional study was done on a sample of 205 Egyptians by an online self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included socio-demographic factors, self-reported weights and heights, a validated Arabic form of the well-known International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF), a validated Arabic version of 14-items Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), in addition to a section assessing dietetic changes. The data was then analyzed using the SPSS version 20 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).
The majority of the study sample were females (74.6%); had a high level of education (93.2%); and about 75% were married. Most of the participants were non-smokers, with around a 7% increased frequency of smoking after the COVID-19 pandemic. Fast food consumption was also reported by a major percentage of study participants (60%). Low Mediterranean Diet Adherence was found in 52.7%. Moreover, Physical Activity (PA) decreased to 61%. Moreover, there was a statistically significant increase seen in the participants' BMI as well as the number of sleeping hours (p = 0.001 and 0.043 respectively) after the pandemic. Both changed hunger sensation and any changes in physical activity were significantly associated with increased BMI (p < 0.001).
A substantial proportion of the participants showed unhealthy changes in their dietary habits as well as physical activity. Consequently, this calls for urgent public health policies and interventions to guard against the consequences of such unhealthy behaviors.
2019年新型冠状病毒无疑是有史以来对人类构成威胁的最复杂病毒之一。众多病毒防控策略导致人们久坐不动和饮食习惯改变，否则会增加患非传染性疾病的几率。
本研究的目的是确定在整个新冠疫情期间埃及样本中，通过地中海饮食依从性观察到的饮食行为变化。
通过在线自填问卷对205名埃及人进行了横断面研究。问卷包括社会人口统计学因素、自我报告的体重和身高、著名的国际体力活动问卷简表（IPAQ-SF）的有效阿拉伯语版本、14项地中海饮食依从性筛查量表（MEDAS）的有效阿拉伯语版本，此外还有一个评估饮食变化的部分。然后使用SPSS 20版（社会科学统计软件包）对数据进行分析。
研究样本中的大多数为女性（74.6%）；教育程度较高（93.2%）；约75%已婚。大多数参与者不吸烟，新冠疫情后吸烟频率增加了约7%。研究参与者中很大一部分人也报告有快餐消费（60%）。发现52.7%的人地中海饮食依从性较低。此外，体力活动（PA）降至61%。此外，疫情后参与者的体重指数以及睡眠时间均有统计学显著增加（分别为p = 0.001和0.043）。饥饿感的变化和体力活动方面的任何变化均与体重指数增加显著相关（p < 0.001）。
相当一部分参与者的饮食习惯和体力活动出现了不健康的变化。因此，这需要紧急的公共卫生政策和干预措施来防范此类不健康行为的后果。
