Adolescents Emotional State and Behavioral and Dietary Habit Changes during Isolation Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. As an infectious disease with no specific treatment, several measures have been established to minimize the outbreak of this disease, including social isolation.

Objective: To evaluate the behavior of adolescents during the isolation period.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at the Adolescent Health Studies Center. Data were obtained from a questionnaire prepared on Google Forms, sent by a multiplatform instant messaging application, and analyzed using the Stata 14 software.

Results: A total of 208 adolescents with a mean age of 15.3 years (SD ± 1.8) answered the questionnaire, 57.7% were female. About 93.3% of adolescents said they were in isolation with a changed routine, 67.3% increased their food consumption, 86.5% were inactive, and 58.7% reported screen time over 8 h/d. There was an association between anxiety and increased food consumption (odds ratio: 3.9; CI 95% 2-7.5; p = 0.00), sleeping difficulty (odds ratio: 3.6; CI 95% 1.9-6.8; p = 0.00), and conflicting family relationship (odds ratio: 5.7; CI 95% 1.6-7.8; p = 0.01).

Conclusion: The study revealed that social isolation due to an infectious disease was associated with several effects on the behavior and eating behavior of adolescents, which need to be acknowledged to encourage them to lead a healthy lifestyle after the COVID-19 confinement.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; adolescents; depression; feeding behavior; social isolation.