info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Dietary Patterns and Dietary Recommendations Achievement From Latin American College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown
Fecha
2022-07-14Autor
Murillo, Ana Gabriela
Gómez, Georgina
Durán-Agüero, Samuel
Parra-Soto, Solange Liliana
Araneda, Jacqueline
Morales, Gladys
Ríos-Castillo, Israel
Carpio-Arias, Valeria
Cavagnari, Brian
Nava-Gonzalez, Edna J.
Bejarano-Roncancio, Jhon Jairo
Cordón-Arrivillaga, Karla
Meza-Miranda, Eliana Romina
Mauricio-Alza, Saby
Landaeta-Díaz, Leslie
Institución
Resumen
This study aimed to compare the diet quality of different dietary patterns among college
students from Latin American countries, including vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores
during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional, observational, multicenter study
was conducted including a non- probabilistic sample of university students from 10
countries. University students were invited to participate in the study through social
network platforms. Participants were self-reported to have followed a specific dietary
pattern; either the Prudent diet, Western diet, Ovo-dairy-vegetarian diet, Fish-vegetarian
diet, Strict vegetarian diet (vegan) or other. The last three patterns (vegetarians and
vegans) were grouped as following a plant-based diet. A self-assessment survey was
used to evaluate healthy eating habits using a questionnaire with values between 1 (do
not consume) and 5 (consume) for a total of 9–45 points (higher values represent better
eating habits). Unhealthy habits were assessed with nine questions. A total of 4,809
students filled out the questionnaire, and the majority of them were females (73.7%).
Murillo et al. College Dietary Patterns During COVID-19
A high percentage have been in lockdown for more than 5 months and were in lockdown
when the survey was released. 74.3% were self-reported to follow a prudent diet, while
11.4% reported following a western dietary pattern and 8.8% a plant-based diet. When
compliance with healthy and unhealthy dietary habits was analyzed, although all groups
had low compliance, the plant-based diet group (56.09 ± 6.11) performed better than the
Western diet group (48.03 ± 5.99). The total diet quality score was significantly higher for
plant-based diet followers, who also tended to better achieve the recommendations than
omnivorous students, especially the ones following a western diet. These results present
evidence that young adults such as college-aged students have unhealthy dietary habits.
However, the ones who follow a plant-based diet such as vegetarians and vegans exhibit
better scores and healthier dietary conducts.