Influencia del confinamiento por el COVID-19 en los hábitos alimentarios y la actividad física de los estudiantes de la Carrera de Terapia Física de la Universidad de Cuenca, periodo septiembre 2021 – febrero 2022

Abstract

Background: At the beginning of 2019, a pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus, whose disease was called COVID-19, broke out, forcing almost all countries on the planet to take strict measures of social distancing and confinement. This generated various problems in people, including: emotional affectations, adoption of inadequate eating habits and unusual physical activities.

Objective: To describe the influence of confinement by COVID-19 on the eating habits and physical activity of students of the physical therapy career at the University of Cuenca for the period September 2021-February 2022.

Methodology: Quantitative study, comparative level. The survey technique was applied to a sample of 92 students of the Physical Therapy career at the University of Cuenca, during September-2021 and February-2022. Descriptive statistics are presented; normality was analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk test; the association between variables was analyzed using chi-square, with significance of 0.05.

Results: 55.4% are male; 60.8% are between 20 and 21 years old, the average age was 21.03±1.88 years; 68.5% reside in urban areas. Vigorous physical activities were more frequent during lockdown than after lockdown; the frequency of breakfast, dinner, and alcoholic beverages decreased after lockdown; the consumption of homemade lunch, junk food and fish increased after confinement (p<0.05).

Conclusions: The confinement implied significant changes in the performance of physical activities and the pattern of consumption of some foods.