Eating behavior and physical activity of university students during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, variations in lifestyle arose affect all people. In the case of students, it generated all kind of emotions, uncertainty and stress affecting food intake, freedom of displacement and other factors that could affect general health. The objective was to determine the eating behavior and the level of physical activity of students of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences during the months of June and July, 2021. A cross-sectional descriptive, quantitative observational study was conducted using a non-probabilistic snowball sampling of consecutive cases. The information was obtained through a virtual survey where 242 university students participated. The questionnaire to determine eating behavior was based on the one prepared by Márquez et al., and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess physical activity. The research protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences of the National University of Asunción with resolution No. 669/2021. It was observed that 90% of the students had healthy eating behaviors. Regarding the level of physical activity, 55% presented a low or inactive level, 87% spent more than 4 hours sitting on a business day. Most of the students presented a healthy eating behavior but having a low or inactive level of physical activity and spending more than 4 hours sitting in a working day is worrying since this represents a risk factor for developing chronic non-communicable diseases.