Long-term effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on weight status, eating habits, and lifestyle changes related to school-aged children in Bandar Abbas, Iran

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Abstract

Background

Despite the end of the COVID-19 lockdown and reopening of schools, the long-term effects of quarantine on the weight status, eating habits, and lifestyle of children and adolescents remain unknown. This study aimed to determine the long-term effects of the lockdown on the weight status, eating habits, and lifestyle changes of children and adolescents in Iran.

Method

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from April to May 2022. The target population comprised one hundred students aged between 10 and 16 years old. Our study obtained students’ weight and height data from records maintained by school principals or physical education instructors before and after the quarantine period. The BMI z-score (zBMI) was calculated for each time point. The researchers also provided a questionnaire to collect the students’ demographic and lifestyle status changes during school closures.

Results

We found that the zBMI increased significantly from − 0.02 ± 1.64 to 0.36 ± 1.12, and the number of individuals with overweight and obesity increased by 3% during quarantine ( P ≤ 0.05). These changes were more pronounced in males and students aged 14–16 years old. We also found that eating habits, sleeping time, sleeping patterns, screen time (time spent on social media per day), and physical activity had significant negative changes during quarantine, and a significant increase in zBMI was observed among students who experienced negative eating behaviors, altered sleeping patterns, and decreased physical activity during school closures.

Conclusion

As prolonged school closures due to the COVID-19 lockdown aggravated students’ health and lifestyle status, our findings can aid in proper planning to establish an appropriate framework for the diet, physical activity, and sleeping quality of students during extended school closures.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-024-19509-3.

Related collections

Most cited references 24

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Eating habits and lifestyle changes during COVID-19 lockdown: an Italian survey

Claudia Leggeri, Francesco Scerbo, Ernesto Esposito … (2020)

Background On December 12th 2019, a new coronavirus (SARS-Cov2) emerged in Wuhan, China, sparking a pandemic of acute respiratory syndrome in humans (COVID-19). On the 24th of April 2020, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, according to the COVID-Case Tracker by Johns Hopkins University, was 195,313, and the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases was 2,783,512. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive impact on human health, causing sudden lifestyle changes, through social distancing and isolation at home, with social and economic consequences. Optimizing public health during this pandemic requires not only knowledge from the medical and biological sciences, but also of all human sciences related to lifestyle, social and behavioural studies, including dietary habits and lifestyle. Methods Our study aimed to investigate the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating habits and lifestyle changes among the Italian population aged ≥ 12 years. The study comprised a structured questionnaire packet that inquired demographic information (age, gender, place of residence, current employment); anthropometric data (reported weight and height); dietary habits information (adherence to the Mediterranean diet, daily intake of certain foods, food frequency, and number of meals/day); lifestyle habits information (grocery shopping, habit of smoking, sleep quality and physical activity). The survey was conducted from the 5th to the 24th of April 2020. Results A total of 3533 respondents have been included in the study, aged between 12 and 86 years (76.1% females). The perception of weight gain was observed in 48.6% of the population; 3.3% of smokers decided to quit smoking; a slight increased physical activity has been reported, especially for bodyweight training, in 38.3% of respondents; the population group aged 18–30 years resulted in having a higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet when compared to the younger and the elderly population (p < 0.001; p < 0.001, respectively); 15% of respondents turned to farmers or organic, purchasing fruits and vegetables, especially in the North and Center of Italy, where BMI values were lower. Conclusions In this study, we have provided for the first time data on the Italian population lifestyle, eating habits and adherence to the Mediterranean Diet pattern during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, our data need to be confirmed and investigated in future more extensive population studies.

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Effects of COVID‐19 Lockdown on Lifestyle Behaviors in Children with Obesity Living in Verona, Italy: A Longitudinal Study

Angelo Pietrobelli, Luca Pecoraro, Alessandro Ferruzzi … (2020)

Abstract Objective To test the hypothesis that youths with obesity, when removed from structured school activities and confined to their homes during the COVID‐19 pandemic, will display unfavorable trends in lifestyle behaviors. Methods The sample included 41 children and adolescents with obesity participating in a longitudinal observational study located in Verona, Italy. Lifestyle information including diet, activity, and sleep behaviors were collected at baseline and three weeks into the national lockdown during which home confinement was mandatory. Changes in outcomes over the two study time points were evaluated for significance using paired t‐tests. Results There were no changes in reported vegetable intake; fruit intake increased (p=0.055) during the lockdown. By contrast, potato chip, red meat, and sugary drink intakes increased significantly during the lockdown (p‐value range, 0.005 to <0.001). Time spent in sports activities decreased (X±SD) by 2.30±4.60 hours/week (p=0.003) and sleep time increased by 0.65±1.29 hours/day (p=0.003). Screen time increased by 4.85±2.40 hours/day (p<0.001). Conclusions Recognizing these adverse collateral effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown is critical in avoiding depreciation of weight control efforts among youths afflicted with excess adiposity. Depending on duration, these untoward lockdown effects may have a lasting impact on a child’s or adolescent’s adult adiposity level.

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Position statement on physical activity and exercise intensity terminology.

Kevin Norton, Lynda Norton, Daryl Sadgrove (2010)

The terminology used for monitoring and promoting physical activity and exercise among health and fitness professionals varies considerably. There is a large array of descriptor terms reported in the literature and used in day-to-day practice and this inconsistency can be confusing for clients and practitioners alike. The variation in terminology also makes it difficult to track changes in activity patterns over time and across studies. There are also a range of objective and relative intensity cut-offs used to describe the same intensity descriptors. This position statement addresses the question of standardisation of physical activity and exercise intensity terminology and makes recommendations that should assist those undertaking research and prescribing physical activity/exercise as well as those clients who are receiving professional guidance.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Behnaz Khamesan: behnazkhamesan@yahoo.com

Niloufar Khatibzade-Nasari: nilou1377@yahoo.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date (Electronic): 24 July 2024

Publication date PMC-release: 24 July 2024

Publication date Collection: 2024

Volume: 24

Electronic Location Identifier: 1981

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of medicine, Qeshm branch, Islamic Azad University, ( https://ror.org/0283g3v77) Qeshm, Iran

[2 ]Community Medicine Department, School of Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, ( https://ror.org/037wqsr57) Bandar Abbas, Iran

[3 ]GRID grid.411705.6, ISNI 0000 0001 0166 0922, Community-Based Participatory Research Center, , Tehran University of Medical Science, ; Tehran, Iran

Article

Publisher ID: 19509

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-19509-3

PMC ID: 11270933

PubMed ID: 39049056

SO-VID: d2ef9e6b-078c-49d5-b538-5f0244b211da

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 8 March 2024

Date accepted : 16 July 2024

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: covid-19,lockdown,children,school,obesity,overweight,weight status,lifestyle

Data availability: