Food Insecurity and Associated Factors in Brazilian Undergraduates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Undergraduates may face challenges to assure food security, related to economic and mental distress, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess food insecurity and its associated factors in undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2020 to February 2021 with 4775 undergraduates from all Brazilian regions. The questionnaire contained socio-economic variables, the validated Brazilian food insecurity scale, and the ESQUADA scale to assess diet quality. The median age of the students was 22.0 years, and 48.0% reported income decreasing with the pandemic. Food insecurity was present in 38.6% of the students, 4.5% with severe food insecurity and 7.7% moderate. Logistic regressions showed students with brown and black skin color/race presented the highest OR for food insecurity; both income and weight increase or reduction during the pandemic was also associated with a higher OR for food insecurity, and better diet quality was associated with decreased OR for food insecurity. Our study showed a considerable presence of food insecurity in undergraduates. Policy for this population must be directed to the most vulnerable: those with brown and black skin color/race, who changed income during the pandemic, and those presented with difficulties maintaining weight and with poor diet quality.

Food security and sociodemographic factors during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

“…Stress and depression were indeed a variable that causes food insecurity among students in a university [23]. This also happened to undergraduate students in Brazil [24]. However, other studies (meta-analysis) found the opposite relationship; food insecurity caused a person to experience stress and depression [25].…”

Effect of COVID-19 outbreak on the diet, body weight and food security status of students of higher education: a systematic review

“…Studies have shown that no less than 20 to 30 % of students gained weight during the pandemic (30,31,58,67,69) , and this was related to factors such as the male gender (33,35,50,68) , increased intake of refined carbohydrates, alcohol, fats, and take away foods (32) , increased snacking (32) , reduced sleep quality (65) , delay in meal-timing (65) , low levels of physical activity (52,65,66,67) , and food insecurity (38) . COVID-19 pandemic affected the students' abilities to attain food and increased the prevalence of food insecurity among this population (36,37,38,39,40,41,42) , with over 30% of students being food insecure in the U.S. (38,39,41) , Brazil (42) , Thailand (74) , and Australia (75) . Factors that predicted food insecurity among college students during the pandemic included loss or reduction of employment, receipt of financial aid, furlough, alterations in living arrangements and housing status, lower cooking self-efficacy, consumption of more take-out or fast food, low diet quality, pre-COVID-19 financial status, the non-White ethnicity, and closure of college campuses (38,39,40,41,42,74) .…”

“…Nevertheless, findings from various longitudinal studies also confirmed a significant increase in body weight of college students during the pandemic (48,54,66,70) and a decrease in diet quality (54,55) . Another limitation is the use of self-reported measures, in most of the studies, to assess and determine changes in diet quality (31,32,55,60) , dietary habits (32,50,51,60) , and body weight (30,31,32,33,34,35,48,52,58,65,67,68,69) along https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114522002604 Published online by Cambridge University Press with the prevalence of food insecurity (36,38,39,40,41,42,43,74,75) . When it comes to diet, for instance, most investigations relied on one survey administered at one-time point to measure intake during the pandemic and compare it retrospectively with pre-pandemic times, which may possibly be subjected to recall bias (31,50,55) .…”

“…Table 2 displays the prevalence of food insecurity during the early phase of the pandemic. In studies conducted in the U.S. (38,39,41,43) , Brazil (42) , Thailand (74) , and Australia (75) , over 30% of students were food insecure. Mialki et al (39) denoted that 59.6% of students became less food secure due to the pandemic in the United States.…”

“…The pandemic unfavorably modified the college students' lifestyles further and thus rendered them more susceptible to weight gain especially during the lockdown periods (30,31,32,33,34,35) . Additionally, research suggests that college students were at high risk of becoming food insecure during the pandemic due to factors such as loss of employment, ineligibility to governmental economic relief efforts, and alterations in living arrangements and housing status (36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43) . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114522002604 Published online by Cambridge University Press…”