Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Nov 14, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 24, 2022 - Nov 7, 2022
Date Accepted: Feb 23, 2023
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 27, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Lifestyle Behaviour Changes and Associated Risk Factors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: results of the Canadian COVIDiet Online Cohort Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns has impacted lifestyle behaviours including eating habits and physical activity; yet few studies identified emerging patterns of such changes and associated risk factors.
Objective:
The objective was to identify patterns of weight and lifestyle behaviour change, and potential risk factors, resulting from the pandemic in Canadian adults.
Methods:
Analyses were conducted on 1,609 adults (18-89 y; 90.1% women; 81.8% White) of the Canadian COVIDiet study baseline data (May-Dec 2020). Self-reported current and pre-pandemic weight, physical activity, smoking status, perceived eating habits, alcohol intake and sleep quality were collected by online questionnaires. Based on these 6 indicator variables, latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify lifestyle behaviour change patterns. Associations with potential risk factors including age, gender, ethnicity, education, income, chronic diseases, body image perception, and changes in stress level, living situation and work arrangement were examined with logistic regressions.
Results:
From LCA, 2 classes of lifestyle behaviour change emerged; “healthy” and “less healthy” (probability: 0.605 and 0.395; BIC=15574.3, entropy=4.8). “Healthy” class participants more frequently reported unchanged weight, sleep quality, smoking and alcohol intake, unchanged/improved eating habits and increased physical activity. The “less healthy” class reported significant weight gain, deteriorated eating habits and sleep quality, unchanged/increased alcohol intake and smoking, and decreased physical activity. Among risk factors, body image dissatisfaction [OR=8.8, 95%CI(5.3-14.7)], depression [OR=1.8, 95%CI(1.3, 2.5)], increased stress level [OR=3.4, 95%CI(2.0, 5.8)] and of gender minority identity [OR=5.5, 95% CI (1.3-22.3)] were associated with adopting “less healthy” behaviours in adjusted models.
Conclusions:
The COVID-19 pandemic appeared to have influenced lifestyle behaviours unfavorably in some, but favorably in others. Body image perception and change in stress level may have modulated these changes; whether these will sustain overtime remains to be studied. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04407533
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