International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12
line decor
  
line decor

 Volume 10, Issue 5 (May 2023), Pages: 43-52

----------------------------------------------

 Original Research Paper

Impact of COVID-19 on the body mass index of school students in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

 Author(s): 

 Sawsan Al-Hashim 1, Mohammed Al-Mahish 2, *, Abdullah AlSalman 3

 Affiliation(s):

 1Department of Nutrition and Food Science, College of Agriculture and Food Science, King Faisal University, Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
 2Department of Agribusiness and Consumer Science, College of Agriculture and Food Science, King Faisal University, Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
 3English Language Department, College of Arts, King Faisal University, Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia

  Full Text - PDF          XML

 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8143-1114

 Digital Object Identifier: 

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2023.05.006

 Abstract:

The precautionary restrictions that were imposed on school students in Saudi Arabia have significantly influenced school students' lifestyles and nutrition intake. This paper aims to reveal the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on school students' body mass index (BMI) in the Al-Ahsa region, which is located in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The study used cross-sectional data that was collected randomly from school students representing all school levels in Al-Ahsa. The paper used a seemingly unrelated regression method, paired t-test, and McNaimar test to examine the factors affecting students' BMI scores before and after the Coronavirus pandemic. The most critical factor that affected the BMI of the school student indirectly is distance learning, where students spent a lot of time in front of electronic devices to study, learn, use social media, and play electronic games. These led to a decrease in their physical activity and an increase in food consumption. All these factors led to a significant increase in BMI for male and female school students. Also, the results show that fruit consumption is associated with a lower BMI score, whereas vegetable consumption is associated with a higher BMI score. The study also revealed that students infected with the Coronavirus have lower BMI scores, on average than students who were not infected with the Coronavirus. The largest impact on school students' BMI is associated with social media usage and Coronavirus infection. To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first paper to use a seemingly unrelated regression method to reveal the impact of socio-economic and nutritional variables on students’ BMI.

 © 2023 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords: Body mass index, COVID-19, School students, Fruits consumption

 Article History: Received 29 October 2022, Received in revised form 22 February 2023, Accepted 23 February 2023

 Acknowledgment 

The authors would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Faisal University for funding this research with project number GRANT2177.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical consideration

Parents of primary school students were allowed to fill out the survey on behalf of their children. The survey has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee at King Faisal University, and it has been given approval # KFU-REC/2021-06-31.

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Al-Hashim S, Al-Mahish M, and AlSalman A (2023). Impact of COVID-19 on the body mass index of school students in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 10(5): 43-52

 Permanent Link to this page

 Figures

 No Figure 

 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 

----------------------------------------------    

 References (30)

  1. Al Alwan İ, Al Fattani A, and Longford N (2013). The effect of parental socioeconomic class on children’s body mass indices. Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology, 5(2): 110-115. https://doi.org/10.4274/Jcrpe.898   [Google Scholar] PMid:23748064 PMCid:PMC3701916
  2. Al Meani SA, Ahmed MM, Abdulkareem AH, Hamid NM, and Ibrahim MO (2020). Effect of COVID-19 virus on biomass index of infected patients. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(9): 1134-1136.   [Google Scholar]
  3. Al-Domi H, Anfal AD, Sara AR, Batarseh N, and Nawaiseh H (2021). Healthy nutritional behavior during COVID-19 lockdown: A cross-sectional study. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 42: 132-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnesp.2021.02.003   [Google Scholar] PMid:33745566 PMCid:PMC7901367
  4. Aldossari N and Al-Mahish M (2021). Social media and unhealthy food nexus: Evidence from Saudi Arabia. Acta Alimentaria, 50(1): 102-111. https://doi.org/10.1556/066.2020.00178   [Google Scholar]
  5. Alfawaz H, Amer OE, Aljumah AA, Aldisi DA, Enani MA, Aljohani NJ, and Al-Daghri NM (2021). Effects of home quarantine during COVID-19 lockdown on physical activity and dietary habits of adults in Saudi Arabia. Scientific Reports, 11: 5904. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85330-2   [Google Scholar] PMid:33723358 PMCid:PMC7961137
  6. Androutsos O, Perperidi M, Georgiou C, and Chouliaras A (2021). Lifestyle changes and determinants of children's and adolescents' body weight increase during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Greece: The COV-EAT study. Nutrients, 13(3): 930. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030930   [Google Scholar] PMid:33805678 PMCid:PMC7998995
  7. Antonogeorgos G, Panagiotakos DB, Grigoropoulou D, Papadimitriou A, Anthracopoulos M, Nicolaidou P, and Priftis KN (2013). The mediating effect of parents’ educational status on the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and childhood obesity: The PANACEA study. International Journal of Public Health, 58(3): 401-408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0424-3   [Google Scholar] PMid:23128782
  8. Chambonniere C, Lambert C, Fearnbach N, Tardieu M, Fillon A, Genin P, and Duclos M (2021). Effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on physical activity and sedentary behaviors in French children and adolescents: New results from the ONAPS national survey. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 43: 101308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2021.101308   [Google Scholar] PMid:33584872 PMCid:PMC7871771
  9. Chaturvedi K, Vishwakarma DK, and Singh N (2021). COVID-19 and its impact on education, social life and mental health of students: A survey. Children and Youth Services Review, 121: 105866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105866   [Google Scholar] PMid:33390636 PMCid:PMC7762625
  10. El Zoghbi A, Milanović I, Janić SR, Mirkov D, and Kukić F (2022). Effects of a three-month COVID-19 lockdown on body mass and nutritional status of Lebanese students who study physical education. Sustainability, 14(3): 1196. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031196   [Google Scholar]
  11. Elmacıoğlu F, Emiroğlu E, Ülker MT, Kırcali BÖ, and Oruç S (2021). Evaluation of nutritional behaviour related to COVID-19. Public Health Nutrition, 24(3): 512-518. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980020004140   [Google Scholar] PMid:33070798 PMCid:PMC7737137
  12. Gaina A, Sekine M, Chandola T, Marmot M, and Kagamimori S (2009). Mother employment status and nutritional patterns in Japanese junior high schoolchildren. International Journal of Obesity, 33(7): 753-757. https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2009.103   [Google Scholar] PMid:19528966
  13. Gallo LA, Gallo TF, Young SL, Moritz KM, and Akison LK (2020). The impact of isolation measures due to COVID-19 on energy intake and physical activity levels in Australian university students. Nutrients, 12(6): 1865. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061865   [Google Scholar] PMid:32585830 PMCid:PMC7353248
  14. Ghoshal U, Vasanth S, and Tejan N (2020). A guide to laboratory diagnosis of Corona Virus Disease-19 for the gastroenterologists. Indian Journal of Gastroenterology, 39(3): 236-242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-020-01082-3   [Google Scholar] PMid:32875524 PMCid:PMC7462729
  15. Jalal SM, Beth MRM, Al-Hassan HJM, and Alshealah NMJ (2021). Body mass index, practice of physical activity and lifestyle of students during COVID-19 lockdown. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 14: 1901-1910. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S325269   [Google Scholar] PMid:34321887 PMCid:PMC8311005
  16. Kołota A and Głąbska D (2021). COVID-19 pandemic and remote education contributes to improved nutritional behaviors and increased screen time in a Polish population-based sample of primary school adolescents: Diet and activity of youth during COVID-19 (DAY-19) study. Nutrients, 13(5): 1596. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051596   [Google Scholar] PMid:34064583 PMCid:PMC8151489
  17. Kothari CR (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques. 2nd Edition, New Age International Publisher, New Delhi, India.   [Google Scholar]
  18. Kriaucioniene V, Bagdonaviciene L, Rodríguez-Pérez C, and Petkeviciene J (2020). Associations between changes in health behaviours and body weight during the COVID-19 quarantine in Lithuania: The Lithuanian COVIDiet study. Nutrients, 12(10): 3119. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12103119   [Google Scholar] PMid:33065991 PMCid:PMC7599784
  19. López-Bueno R, López-Sánchez GF, Casajús JA, Calatayud J, Gil-Salmerón A, Grabovac I, and Smith L (2020). Health-related behaviors among school-aged children and adolescents during the Spanish COVID-19 confinement. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 8: 573. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.00573   [Google Scholar] PMid:33042917 PMCid:PMC7516648
  20. McNemar Q (1947). Note on the sampling error of the difference between correlated proportions or percentages. Psychometrika, 12(2): 153-157. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02295996   [Google Scholar] PMid:20254758
  21. MOH (2020). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's experience in health preparedness and response to COVID-19 pandemic. Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 
  22. Mulugeta W and Hoque L (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on weight status and associated factors for obesity among children in Massachusetts. Obesity Medicine, 22: 100325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obmed.2021.100325   [Google Scholar] PMid:36567747 PMCid:PMC9764432
  23. Palermi S, Vecchiato M, Pennella S, Marasca A, Spinelli A, De Luca M, and Biffi A (2022). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on childhood obesity and lifestyle: A report from Italy. Pediatric Reports, 14(4): 410-418. https://doi.org/10.3390/pediatric14040049   [Google Scholar] PMid:36278553 PMCid:PMC9589932
  24. Shalitin S, Phillip M, and Yackobovitch-Gavan M (2022). Changes in body mass index in children and adolescents in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Obesity, 46(6): 1160-1167. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-022-01092-5   [Google Scholar] PMid:35173280 PMCid:PMC8852981
  25. Teixeira MT, Vitorino RS, da Silva JH, Raposo LM, Aquino LAD, and Ribas SA (2021). Eating habits of children and adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic: The impact of social isolation. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 34(4): 670-678. https://doi.org/10.1111/jhn.12901   [Google Scholar] PMid:33811690 PMCid:PMC8251498
  26. Wang J, Yeoh EK, Yung TKC, Wong MCS, Dong D, Chen X, and Chong KC (2021). Change in eating habits and physical activities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong: A cross‐sectional study via random telephone survey. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 18: 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-021-00431-7   [Google Scholar] PMid:33910582 PMCid:PMC8080997
  27. WHO (2021). Obesity and overweight. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.   [Google Scholar]
  28. Zemrani B, Gehri M, Masserey E, Knob C, and Pellaton R (2021). A hidden side of the COVID-19 pandemic in children: The double burden of undernutrition and overnutrition. International Journal for Equity in Health, 20: 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01390-w   [Google Scholar] PMid:33482829 PMCid:PMC7820834
  29. Zhou F, Yu T, Du R, Fan G, Liu Y, Liu Z, Xiang J, Wang Y, Song B, Gu X, and Guan L (2020). Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: A retrospective cohort study. The Lancet, 395(10229): 1054-1062. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30566-3   [Google Scholar] PMid:32171076
  30. Zhu Q, Li M, Ji Y, Shi Y, Zhou J, Li Q, and Zhuang X (2021). “Stay-at-Home” lifestyle effect on weight gain during the COVID-19 outbreak confinement in China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4): 1813. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041813   [Google Scholar] PMid:33673375 PMCid:PMC7918476