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. 2020 Aug 4;12(8):2327.
doi: 10.3390/nu12082327.

COVID-19 Lockdown and Changes of the Dietary Pattern and Physical Activity Habits in a Cohort of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

María Belén Ruiz-Roso  1 , Carolina Knott-Torcal  2 , Diana C Matilla-Escalante  1 , Alba Garcimartín  3 , Miguel A Sampedro-Nuñez  2 , Alberto Dávalos  1 , Mónica Marazuela  2
Affiliations

COVID-19 Lockdown and Changes of the Dietary Pattern and Physical Activity Habits in a Cohort of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

María Belén Ruiz-Roso et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdown clearly affected the lifestyle of the population and entailed changes in their daily habits, which involved potential health consequences, especially on patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). We aimed to examine the impact of the lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic on both nutrition and exercise habits, as well as the psychological effects in patients with T2DM, compared to their usual diet and physical activity level previous to the complete home confinement. We also intended to analyse any potential variables that may have influenced these lifestyle modifications. A Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), Food Craving Questionnaire-State (FCQ-S) and Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait (FCQ-T) were used. Our results showed an increase in vegetable, sugary food and snack consumption. An association between levels of foods cravings and snack consumption was also found. Data also showed a high percentage of physical inactivity before the COVID-19 lockdown, which was exacerbated during the home confinement. These findings emphasise the great importance to do further research with larger study samples to analyse and explore dietary habits and to develop public health policies to promote a healthy lifestyle in terms of diet and physical activity in these patients, especially after this strict period of lockdown.

Keywords: COVID-19; diet; food cravings; lockdown; physical activity; type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of mean dietary intake among patients with Type 2 Diabetes before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data is shown as means ± SEM. Comparison between groups were performed using a paired two-tail Student’s t-test. * p < 0.005, ** p < 0.001, *** p < 0.0001. n = 72.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Food intake frequency to compare dietary patterns before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, expressed by percentage of patients according to their weekly or daily frequency of consumption of each food group. n = 72.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlation matrix for dietary patterns and general characteristics of the sample during the COVID-19 lockdown. Red and blue cells indicate significant indirect and direct correlations (p < 0.05), respectively. White squares show non-significant correlations (p > 0.05), numbers inside cells indicate Pearson correlation coefficient (r).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Networking mapping of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients that maintained (yes) or did not maintain (no) a suitable food intake according to the dietary guidelines by general characteristics of the sample during the COVID-19 lockdown. Circle size correlate to the prevalence of that variable and a shorter distance between the circles indicates a greater co-occurrence of features.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison of mean sitting, walking and moderate physical activity time per week before lockdown and during lockdown among patients with Type II Diabetes. Data are shown as means ± SEM. Comparison between groups by paired two-tail Student’s t-test. * p < 0.05, **** p < 0.0001. n = 72.
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