The COVID-19 pandemic that has spread rapidly and extensively around the world since late 2019 has had profound implications on food and nutrition. The unfolding crisis has affected food systems and threatened people’s access to food via multiple dynamics. On December 12th 2019, a new coronavirus (SARS-Cov2) emerged in Wuhan, China, sparking a pandemic of acute respiratory syndrome in humans (COVID-19). On the 24th of April 2020, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, according to the COVID-Case Tracker by Johns Hopkins University, was 195,313, and the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases was 2,783,512. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive impact on human health, causing sudden lifestyle changes, through social distancing and isolation at home, with social and economic consequences. Optimizing public health during this pandemic requires not only knowledge from the medical and biological sciences, but also of all human sciences related to lifestyle, social and behavioural studies, including dietary habits and lifestyle.
Indians cannot hide their love for food as India being a diverse country offers various lip- smacking delicacies. A sinful indulgence is no sin to us Indians and as far as food is concerned,
We hide our emotions behind it. But these emotions only end up showing in different parts of the body by increasing the fat content and also increase in calorie intake that leads to fatal consequences like high cholesterol levels, cardiac diseases and the list goes on. The prevalence of the pandemic has brought about a tidal shift in consumer behaviour globally. A sudden sense of enquiry has seeped into the minds of people. They want to know what they eat, where it comes from, and how it is grown. The focus has shifted towards a natural and holistic way of living. Through this study, we try to understand the effects of COVID-19 on the health / nutritional preferences and habits of Indians.
- Collect data points over a week's period using a google form to capture people's sleep, diet and exercise routines before and after COVID
- Understand the effects of COVID on people's sleep, diet and exercise routines.
- Make inferences about the population based on sample responses
The survey was conducted from 13 dec-17th dec 2021.Our study aimed to investigate the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating habits, sleep pattern and physical activity(exercise/yoga/meditation) changes among the population of Maharashtra within the sampling frame of age group 18-40 years. Survey was created using Google Form. The study comprised a structured questionnaire packet that inquired individual information regarding (age group, gender, height, weight, level of education, location),Sleep pattern information(average sleep hours, changes in sleep hours since covid),Dietary habits information(healthy food consumption, outside food eat count, changes in diet due to covid),Physical activity information(exercise count in week, started exercising before or since covid)and additional questions like(self-health rating, health issues faced)
Sampling technique used on the sample collection was convenience sampling as the data represents outcomes for a particular age group. Convenience sampling (also known as grab sampling, accidental sampling, or opportunity sampling) is a type of non-probability sampling that involves the sample being drawn from that part of the population that is close to hand. Convenience sampling can be used by almost anyone and has been around for generations. One of the reasons that it is most often used is due to the numerous advantages it provides. This method is extremely speedy, easy, readily available, and cost effective, causing it to be an attractive option to most researchers. SAMPLE SIZE: 52
- Sample consists of a fairly equal proportion of men and women
- Sample is representative of the literate population of Maharashtra within the age group of 18-25
- We can say with 95% confidence that 75% - 94% of the population believe that they live a healthy lifestyle.
- We can say with 95% confidence that 67% - 89% of the population gets adequate sleep.
- Out of all people who are getting adequate sleep, we can say with 95% Confidence Interval that 39%-69% of Population are those who are now sleeping more or have had no change in their sleep schedule since covid.
- We can say with 95% confidence that 30% - 57% of the population's sleep pattern was impacted by covid.
- On an average the population eats atleast 2-3 times in a week outside food.
- We can say with 95% confidence, that people who believe that they eat healthy still eat outside food atleats 1-2 times in a week.
- We can say with 95% confidence that 74% - 94% of the population are eating healthy food.
- After performing an hypothesis testing, we can say that People exercise less than 5 days in a week.
- After analysing the proportion of people who exercise >=1 times in a week, we can say with 95% confidence that 70% - 91% of the population exercise or used to exercise.
- We can also say with 95% confidence that 43% - 61% of the population is exercising after COVID.
- Here there is a drop in the proportion of people who are exercising after/since covid and those who used to exercise before covid.
- On an average, people who used to exercise before but have stopped since COVID, used to exercise 2-4 days in a week.
- We can say with 95% confidence that 7% to 27% of the population who did not exercise before has started exercising since COVID.
- We can say with 95% confidence that people who started exercising since COVID exercise on a average 4-7 times in a week.
- We can say with 95% confidence that people who have been exercising since before and after COVID, exercise on a average 4-6 times in a week.
- We can say with 95% confidence that the population consists of individuals who fall in the 'Normal' BMI category and have healthy weight.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16WUOTRp-FBFDL3T0HxHuyBJLtavqaqWlj7FScLbKXuY/edit?usp=sharing