Dietary patterns and dietary recommendations achievement from Latin American college students during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown
Abstract: 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-...
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Frontiers Media
2022
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/14721 |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | Abstract: 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%). 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. |
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