"Abstract
The COVID-19 lockdowns saw many individuals lose income, experience distress and increase intake of foods that would typically be considered less ‘healthy’ (more processed and less fresh produce)... Adults in two locations (UK and Australia) (N = 917) completed online questionnaires to explore the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown on their change in income, emotional wellbeing (depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness), resilience and diet quality...
1. Introduction
... Pandemic related income loss has been shown to be a major driver of stress, depression and anxiety (Wilson et al., 2021; Obrenovic et al., 2021; Hertz-Palmor et al., 2021). Where individuals were concerned about job losses, this was associated with higher levels of depression (Hertz-Palmor et al., 2021) and those who lost their jobs or experienced income loss tended to have the highest levels of anxiety and other adverse mental health outcomes (Ruegeron, Awiphan, Wongpakaran, Wogpakaren, & Nochaiwong, 2021).
Another outcome associated with the pandemic and lockdowns, was negative changes in dietary behaviour, with individuals reporting increased snacking, consumption of processed foods and reduced intake of fresh produce during this period (e.g. Robinson et al., 2021). Multiple studies have linked these changes in dietary eating patterns to emotional distress...
The current study sought to establish whether income loss from the COVID19 pandemic is indirectly predictive of a less nutritious diet and whether this association is mediated by distress (i.e. greater income loss would be expected to predict distress which in turn would directly predict a less nutritious diet)..
3. Results
3.1. Descriptive statistics (pooled data)
The combined Australian and UK sample (N = 917) was mostly female (77.7%), with 23.4% reporting no longer working in response to COVID-19; 8.5% were working reduced hours, 47.8% were either working exclusively or partially from home, and only 20.2% reported no change to their work situation. Of the sample, 3.2% were underweight, 44.3% of normal weight, 37.4% overweight and 15.1% living with obesity...
4. Discussion
In the current study, income loss on its own was not significantly associated with reduced diet quality; this relationship was only significant when distress was included. This suggests that it was not a reduction in affordability per se that was important in driving diet quality but how people responded emotionally to any loss of income."
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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