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. 2023 Sep 22;15(9):e45756.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.45756. eCollection 2023 Sep.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Lifestyle-Related Behavior Among the General Population

Vandna Pandey  1 , Remiya Mohan  1 , Ashok Kumar  1 , P Gangadevi  1 , Nancy Kurien  1
Affiliations

The Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Lifestyle-Related Behavior Among the General Population

Vandna Pandey et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus has affected more than 200 countries around the world. Due to lockdowns, people have limited outdoor activities and started adopting new and healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted to explore the impact of COVID-19 on lifestyle-related behavior. Data were collected from different regions of North India using Google Forms (Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA) with the help of a standardized questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis. The p-value was set at <0.05.

Results: A total of 468 responses were recorded (mean age: 28.51 years). A significant improvement was found in the intake of fruits and vegetables as well as pulses, eggs, or meat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participation in household chores and screen time in watching mobile or television were significantly increased. The majority (44.4%) of participants had stable weight, and 37.8% gained weight during the COVID-19 pandemic. The anxiety they felt in a day also increased, which was predominantly due to fear of COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant association was found between physical activity scores and gender, residence, nature of work, and hours of work of study subjects.

Conclusion: There is an improvement in healthy eating behavior, quality of sleep, and participation in household chores during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, domains of lifestyle can be explored to bring a positive style of living for the achievement of healthy lifestyle behavior by the general population.

Keywords: covid-19; eating; lifestyle; physical activity; sleep behavior.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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