1. Introduction
At the beginning of 2020, when some vague news about the coronavirus disease induced by SARS-CoV-2 reached Poland, it did not cause much commotion in society [
1,
2,
3]. The rapid spread of the virus outside the Asian continent and finally the first case of the disease confirmed in Poland on the 4th of March 2020 changed many Poles’ lives diametrically [
4,
5]. The number of clients in the grocery stores was limited. That time was hard for everyone without exception, not only because of lockdown, but also because of work and financial instability, COVID-19 cases among our families and friends, movement restrictions and many other factors.
The multitude of information, often mutually exclusive, has led to disorientation, fear and panic during the first wave (Spring 2020) and the second wave (Fall 2020) of the pandemic in Poland. Moreover, the extremely stressful situation of quarantine during each wave of the COVID-19 pandemic affects eating patterns [
6,
7]. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the access to fresh food has been restricted, due to grocery shopping hours restrictions and clients limitations. People who had to change their workstyle spent more time at home and quite often limited their physical activity as well [
8,
9,
10]. The isolation and easy access to so-called comfort foods, rich in sugar, led to their use to help decrease stress by increasing serotonin levels [
8,
11]. On the other hand, it could have been the best time for some positive habits, including developing cooking skills, restricting calories intake and starting physical activity at home [
10].
The third COVID-19 wave in Poland took place in March and April 2021.The number of the new infected has been fluctuating daily, at around 20,000–35,000 cases [
12,
13]. The pessimistic frame of mind was affected not only because of the daily number of deaths or extended restrictions, but also because of the delay of vaccine delivery. The fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has started between November and December in Poland. According to medical specialists, the fifth wave of the coronavirus will hit its peak in mid-January of 2022.
In the past two years, numerous survey studies were focused on the effect of the pandemic on social contact, movement restriction on nutrition behaviors, mental and health conditions, shopping frequency, education, alcohol drinking and cigarette smoking and many other factors in different study groups, starting with the youngest and ending with seniors [
6,
10,
14]. The purpose of our study was to test the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on nutritional habits, vitamin supplementation, physical activity and lifestyle of surveyed respondents across age, gender, occupation, education level and living place groups.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily changes of food consumption, the body weight changes, physical activity and lifestyle was evaluated by using the self-designed cross-sectional online questionnaire (
https://forms.office.com/r/bwGMA83kht, accessed on 3 November 2021). The questionnaire also consisted of the questions related to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on food consumption such as sweets, vegetables and sweet drinks and the supplementation of vitamin D, C and Mg. Knowing the side effects of the pandemic on societies may allow specifying more appropriate strategies to minimalize or control the spread of the epidemic [
15,
16]. Moreover, the results of the present study may help the dietitians and psychologists to understand their significant role in helping society to cope with the far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the results and our individual experiences may be helpful in case of any new pandemics in the future.
2. Material and Methods
The self-designed questionnaire was constructed to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on nutritional habits, physical activity and lifestyle. Additionally, some questions were related to mental and emotional condition, willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccination, shopping frequency, pro-ecological activity and consumers’ habits in Poland. However, such aspects are not discussed in the present manuscript.
To evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ nutritional habits, physical activity and daily lifestyle in Poland, the survey study was designed as follows:
The self-designed questionnaire, composed of closed-ended questions was constructed;
The survey study was anonymous and voluntary;
The potential respondents were contacted one time;
The questions were multiple-choice, with more than one answer possible in some cases, such as in the mental and emotional conditions section;
The questionnaire was composed of 37 questions divided into four sections:
Section 1: Demographic questions consisting of seven queries;
Section 2: Dietary habits and lifestyle disputes composed of 14 questions;
Section 3: Six questions relating to the mental and emotional conditions. This section includes the question about the intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (not discussed in the present manuscript);
Section 4: Inquiries relating to grocery shopping behaviors and pro-ecologic behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic composed of 10 questions (not discussed in the present manuscript);
The link to survey was administered via social media and was sent to the University of Medical Sciences workers by e-mails with the request for publication. The online research allowed to ensure safety of respondents under the pandemic conditions;
The link to questionnaire was active from the 1 May 2021 to the 15 May 2021;
The questionnaire was addressed to Polish females and males aged >18 years old. There were no exclusion criteria implemented, except the underage.
Within two weeks, 150 respondents answered the questions. The preliminary analysis showed that five questionnaires were filled partially and those were excluded from further analysis.
The purpose of our study was to test the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on nutritional habits, physical activity and daily lifestyle of surveyed respondents across age, gender, occupation, education level and living place groups.
The study hypothesis was verified based on the questions related to:
Whether the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland resulted in changes of workstyles and, if so, whether it affected Poles’ nutritional habits;
Whether lockdown during first, second and third waves of coronavirus in Poland resulted in daily changes of food consumption and physical activity resulting in weight changes;
Whether the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lowering, increasing or did not affect sweets, fast foods, sweet drinks, energy drinks, fruits, vegetables and fish consumption at all;
Whether the news appearing in media, relating to the high hopes for the possible vitamin D protective effect against COVID-19, resulted in an increased consumption of that vitamin. We also asked respondents about the vitamin C and Mg supplementation, as well as pickled food consumption.
The statistical analysis was conducted using Statistica v 13.1 (StatSoft Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA) and GraphPad Prism version 9 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA, USA). The Pearson chi-square statistic test was used to evaluate tests of independence. The Pearson chi-square values (denoted as Pearson’s χ2), degrees of freedom (df) and p values were collected in the manuscript. Additionally, in order to provide greater statistical power and to estimate the independent influence of selected factors on analyzed parameters, multiple linear regression was carried out in the studied group. Moreover, multiple regression models were built to analyze the association between potential determinants and positive or negative changes. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. In all cases, p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
4. Discussion
The present cross-sectional study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted surveyed individuals’ dietary habits. In general, most respondents declared no effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on changing nutritional habits, whereby questioned aged 66–89 observed changing dietary habits least often. Eating more meals than before the pandemic declared about 34% of individuals with higher education levels completed. In contrast, individuals with vocational, secondary, and higher education levels declared eating fewer meals per day least often. This may result from professional workstyle, decreased or increased stress, daily lifestyle change during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The present study results reveal expected changes in the daily lifestyle of questioned participants, especially those aged 18–41. The results are not surprising because of schools and universities closures, the lack of face-to-face interaction with peers and co-workers, increased stress for many families and forced change of professional work mode [
17]. Moreover, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on daily lifestyle reported by the majority of individuals who worked hybrid and remote system is an evidence that such modification of workstyle turned out to be one of the most significant change in many people’s lives. The main finding of this study was that individuals who declared hydride work and remote work reported most often the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on daily lifestyle change independent of age, gender, education level and living place. It should be emphasized that such work modes were not standard in Poland before the COVID-19 and we wonder if both work modes catch on eventually.
We also found out that the impact of the pandemic on daily lifestyle was also associated with body mass increase. In fact, women issued such declarations more frequently than men. Moreover, we found that individuals with vocational and secondary education levels reported a decrease in body mass least often, whereas hybrid working women declared most often an increase in body mass independent of age, education level and living place. Błaszczyk-Bębenek et al. demonstrated that the body weight of 32% of the surveyed did not change during isolation, whereas the weight of almost 46% of the respondents significantly increased [
18]. The tendency percentage found in the present study is different from those mentioned above, and probably results from the lower number of our study’s participants. Some studies pointed out that women are less resistant to stress and a subconscious reaction to reduce stress and anxiety is snacking and more frequent eating [
14,
19]. In the present study, although almost 43% of questioned women declared the body mass increase, nearly 43% of surveyed women reported no change in body weight, whereas 15% reported body mass loss. In our opinion, the results are positive and may suggest an increased time for meals preparing, more time for celebrating eating with family, eating meals at the fixed time and desire to change dietary habits. In addition, it is worth mentioning that increased weight, especially obesity, is one of the most critical risk factors of more severe COVID-19 disease course and fatality [
18,
20]. Despite the low number of male participants, the results show that most of this study group declared no change in the body mass during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is interesting, considering that most studies reported poorer dietary habits and a higher frequency of overweight and obesity among men compared to women [
18].
The positive results of social isolation manifested in eating behaviors cannot also be overlooked. Some studies stated the decreases in alcohol binge drinking, decreases in eating fried foods and an increase in eating fresh foods [
18,
21,
22]. In the present study, we have not found the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on increase in eating fruits, vegetables and fish per week. In general, almost 56% of all respondents declared no change in frequency of sweets consumption, whereas 28% reported eating sweets more frequently per week during the COVID-19 pandemic than before. Our results show that almost one-third of highly educated individuals declared more frequent sweets consumption per week than before the pandemic. It may be associated with evaluated stress and easier availability to sweet products because of hybrid or remote work, which were declared by individuals belonging to this study subgroup. On the other hand, the surveyed who stated no influence of the pandemic on the bodyweight more often revealed no changes in sweets, fast foods, sweet drinks, fruits and vegetable consumption frequency. Sidor and Rzymski found that nearly one-third of 1097 respondents consumed sweets at least every day and the same proportion did not consume fresh vegetables daily [
22]. In our study, eating more sweets and fruits was most frequently reported by respondents who observed the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on their dietary habits and stated weight gain during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that respondents who declared more frequency sweets consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic were more likely associated with an increase in body mass. The beneficial health effects of fruit, including attenuation of obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease are well documented [
23,
24]. Despite the identified anti-obesity effect of fruit, some studies have also reported the pro-obesity impacts of certain types of fruit [
24,
25]. In the light of recent studies, it should be mentioned eating fruit can increase calorific intake and positively impact energy homeostasis to promote obesity eventually, which most consumers are not aware of.
In our opinion, physical activity is one of the essential components of daily lifestyle that showed the most substantial negative influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study results show that individuals who declared remote work and hybrid work reported a decrease in physical activity most often, whereas an increase in physical activity was stated most often by individuals who performed remote work.
The scientific world had high hopes for the possible vitamin D protective effect against the COVID-19 disease. The present study has not confirmed the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic increased vitamin D consumption in surveyed individuals. Interestingly, Puścion-Jakubik et al. demonstrated that a significantly greater percentage of Polish respondents declared not taking food supplements with zinc and vitamin D during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic [
26]. In many countries, an evaluated interest in diet supplementation during the COVID-19 pandemic was found [
27,
28,
29]. Our results demonstrate higher intake of vitamin D by women than by men. It may suggest that women are more worried about their health and more interested in pro-health prophylaxis than men. The Polish Economic Institute notified that the worth of the food supplements market was estimated to amount to 4.4 billion PLN in 2017 and over 70% of Poles used food supplements [
26,
30]. It seems that cognizance in differences between medications and supplements, side effects, and their possible interaction with medications has increased. It is not excluded that most of the respondents did not decide to start vitamin D supplementation or increase the dosage by themselves, without recommendation. It is worth emphasizing, that consulting doctors or pharmacists was strongly limited, especially during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Both aspects were analyzed by Puścion-Jakubik et al. [
26]. They found that most respondents reported that food supplements could have side effects and be overdosed. In our study, the effect of age on the increase in vitamin D supplementation has not been found. Our results point out the importance of another aspect of this issue, namely vitamin D supplementation, which before the COVID-19 pandemic, was used already by 50% of all women. Our results may indicate the increasing knowledge on the evidence of vitamin D’s health benefits as well as vitamin D-related diseases, such as depression and osteoporosis, commonly encountered among older women.
Additionally, we have not found the effect of gender, age, living place, education level and occupation on supplementation of vitamin C, and Mg during the COVID-19 pandemic. It suggests that negative emotions related to the COVID-19 pandemic did not result in starting Mg supplementation or increasing dosage in the studied group. In the present study, it has been observed that gender, age, living place, education level and occupation had not contributed to the frequency of consumption of pickled products. It seems that the tradition of pickling and fermenting food is so widespread and deeply rooted in Poland that the COVID-19 pandemic did not increase such tendency significantly.