Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec;41(12):3038-3045.
doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2021.04.020. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on snacking habits, fast-food and alcohol consumption: A systematic review of the evidence

Dimitra Rafailia Bakaloudi  1 , Dhanushya T Jeyakumar  2 , Ranil Jayawardena  3 , Michail Chourdakis  4
Affiliations

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on snacking habits, fast-food and alcohol consumption: A systematic review of the evidence

Dimitra Rafailia Bakaloudi et al. Clin Nutr. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and lockdown measures, that were implemented in many countries in order to control the virus transmission, had negatively influenced the lifestyle of millions of people worldwide. In this study we aimed to investigate the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown period (March-May 2020) on snacking behavior, fast-food and alcohol consumption. A systematic search in PubMed®, Scopus® and Web of Science® databases was conducted and 32 studies were included. Changes in snacking, in fast-food and ordered food consumption and in alcohol intake were examined. Snacking was found to be increased for a significant portion of the population examined (18.9-45.1%), whereas fast food (15.0-41.3%) and ordered food (33.9%) showed a tendency towards decrease. As per alcohol consumption, an upward trend was observed in a significant part (10.4-51.0%) of the participants examined. The increased snacking and alcohol consumption observed for almost a third of the examined population could be alarming because long-term health problems could arise in cases of repeated lockdowns in the future. The observed downward trend in fast-food consumption and in frequency of ordered food could be an encouraging sign of turning to home-prepared foods, but further research is needed in this field.

Keywords: Alcohol; COVID-19; Drinking; Fast food; Ordered food; Sars-Cov-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram of eligibility process of included studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Baloch S., Baloch M.A., Zheng T., Pei X. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Tohoku J Exp Med. 2020;250:271–278. - PubMed
    1. Koh D. COVID-19 lockdowns throughout the world. Occup Med (Lond). 2020:kqaa073. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa073. - DOI
    1. Clay J.M., Parker M.O. Alcohol use and misuse during the COVID-19 pandemic: a potential public health crisis? Lancet Publ Health. 2020;5:e259. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anton S.D., Miller P.M. Do negative emotions predict alcohol consumption, saturated fat intake, and physical activity in older adults? Behav Modif. 2005;29:677–688. - PubMed
    1. Moynihan A.B., van Tilburg W.A., Igou E.R., Wisman A., Donnelly A.E., Mulcaire J.B. Eaten up by boredom: consuming food to escape awareness of the bored self. Front Psychol. 2015;6:369. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types