Food practices and lifestyle in the population of Guayaquil during the Covid-19 pandemic

Introduction: The period of home confinement for COVID-19 has generated positive effects to stop the spread of the virus, but in turn has caused a modification of the traditional lifestyle of the population; which could lead to a decrease in physical activity and less motivation to eat a healthy diet. Objective: Determine food practices and lifestyles in the population of Guayaquil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional and observational study was carried out that included 527 people from the city of Guayaquil. The information was collected through an online questionnaire. For the identification of eating habits, the food consumption frequency survey was used and for the determination of lifestyles the FANTASTIC questionnaire was considered. Results: The research sample consisted of 190 men and 337 women; which represented 36.1% and 63.9% respectively. The age range was 18 to 64 years, with an average of 30.4 +/- 10.8. The dietary practice of those investigated was characterized by insufficient consumption of dairy products (80.1%), vegetables (71.7%), fruits (71.9%), meat and poultry (76.7%), fish (63.2%), cereals and derivatives (89.0%) and legumes (58.8%). The study population showed a low tendency to consume alcohol (81.2%), tobacco (90.1%) and practice physical activity (68.3%). Conclusions: A positive change was determined in the decrease in alcohol and tobacco intake, however, there was a change in lifestyle, especially a reduction in the consumption of healthy foods and physical activity; for which health promotion strategies must be established to prevent the appearance of chronic non-communicable disease in the future.