Food Intake, Food Purchasing Access, and Stress During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive Study Among College Students of Jenderal Soedirman University

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing social restrictions that leads to school form home. Long period of online learning system will likely make excessive food intakes and adolescent would try popular diet, got high stress due to staying at home for a long period of time, and decreased of food purchasing access. This study aimed to describe the food intakes, food purchasing access, and stress level among college students of Jenderal Soedirman University during pandemic period. This study was crossectional design study with data collection using purposive sampling. Total samples were 361 students from Jenderal Soedirman University Students. Descriptive Analytical data was shown using percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Food intake data was collected using 24 hours food recall and food purchasing access was determined by the online questionnaire with question about how the respondents get the access to buy food during pandemic Energy intakes, macro nutrients, vitamins C and vitamins A of Jenderal Soedirman University Students during pandemic era were inadequate compared to their nutritional needs. Most of the students feel stressed during pandemic because they were worried they might get infected by COVID-19 either themselves or their family.

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nutrition, Health and Environment in Indonesia: A Qualitative Investigation of Perspectives from Multi-Disciplinary Experts

“…These perspectives are supported by other studies on the consumption of away-from-home foods during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. In a survey on dietary behaviors of college students in Indonesia studying from home during COVID-19, authors found an increase in the option of buying cooked food from online delivery services [ 46 ]. Another quantitative study among college students in Indonesia showed no significant decrease in consumption of packaged foods and sugar sweetened beverages during the pandemic in August 2020 compared to December 2019 [ 21 ].…”