Psychological factors of diet quality among rural populations of Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Samuel Durán-Agüero; María Fernanda Vinueza-Veloz; Gabriel González-Medina; Valeria Carpio-Arias; Israel Ríos-Castillo; Brian M Cavagnari; Edna J Nava-González; Saby Camacho-López; Karla Cordón-Arrivillaga; Beatriz Núñez-Martínez; Eliana Romina Meza-Miranda; Alfonsina Ortíz; Patricio Pérez-Armijo; John Jairo Bejarano-Roncancio; Sonia Ivankovich-Guillén; Saby Mauricio-Alza; Leslie Landaeta-Díaz

doi:10.22605/RRH6909

Original Research

Psychological factors of diet quality among rural populations of Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

AUTHORS

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Samuel Durán-Agüero¹ PhD, Associate Professor

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María Fernanda Vinueza-Veloz² PhD

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Gabriel González-Medina³ MSc, PhD Student

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Valeria Carpio-Arias⁴ PhD, Professor

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Israel Ríos-Castillo⁵ PhD

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Brian M Cavagnari⁶ PhD, Associate Professor

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Edna J Nava-González⁷ PhD, Professor

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Saby Camacho-López⁸ PhD, Director

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Karla Cordón-Arrivillaga⁹ MA, Associate Professor

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Beatriz Núñez-Martínez¹⁰ PhD, Professor

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Eliana Romina Meza-Miranda¹¹ PhD, Professor

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Alfonsina Ortíz¹² MSc, Associate Professor

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Patricio Pérez-Armijo¹³ MSc, PhD Student

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John Jairo Bejarano-Roncancio¹⁴ MSc, Associate Professor

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Sonia Ivankovich-Guillén¹⁵ MSc, Vice President

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Saby Mauricio-Alza¹⁶ PhD, Director of Nutrition and Dietetics

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Leslie Landaeta-Díaz¹⁷ PhD, Senior Lecturer *

AFFILIATIONS

¹ Escuela de Nutrición y Dietética, Facultad de Ciencias para el Cuidado de la Salud, Universidad San Sebastián, Los Leones, Chile

² Escuela de Medicina, Facultad de Salud Pública, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Riobamba, Ecuador; and Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

³ Escuela de Medicina, Departamento de Salud Pública, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

⁴ Grupo de Investigación en Alimentación y Nutrición Humana (GIANH), Facultad de Salud Pública, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Riobamba, Ecuador

⁵ Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), Oficina Subregional de la FAO para Mesoamérica, Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá

⁶ Escuela de Nutrición, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, Av. Alicia Moreau de Justo 1300, C1107AFB CABA, Argentina

⁷ Facultad de Salud Pública y Nutrición, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México

⁸ Nutrir México, Ciudad de México, México

⁹ Unidad de Investigación en Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (UNISAN), Escuela de Nutrición, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacia, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala

¹⁰ Universidad Autónoma de Asunción, Paraguay

¹¹ Centro Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Tecnológicas, Departamento de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Paraguay

¹² Departamento de Nutrición, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Uruguay

¹³ Departamento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, España

¹⁴ Departamento de Nutrición Humana, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, Colombia

¹⁵ ACDYN Asociación Costarricense de Dietistas y Nutricionistas, Costa Rica

¹⁶ Universidad Privada Norbert Wiener, Lima, Perú

¹⁷ Facultad de Salud y Ciencias Sociales, Escuela de Nutrición y Dietética, Universidad de Las Américas, Chile

ACCEPTED: 14 January 2022

Now published, see the full article

Early Abstract:

Purpose: To determine the relationship between symptoms of anxiety and/or anhedonia and diet quality during the confinement due to COVID-19 in rural population.
Methods: Multicentric, cross-sectional study. An online survey was applied, which included the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) for assessing the presence of anhedonia, the Food Intake Questionnaire, and sociodemographic questions.
Findings: The study included 10552 people from 11 countries; 708 participants lived in rural areas. More than half of the participants were quarantined at the moment of the survey. Diet quality was inversely associated with anhedonia (p < 0.001) and anxiety (p = 0.003). In addition, a healthier diet was associated with being female (p = 0.030), having a higher level of education (p = 0.008) and country or residence (p = 0.001).
Conclusions: Among the rural population, a worse diet quality is associated with symptoms of anhedonia and anxiety, as well as lower level of education and being male during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposals to improve the quality of the diet could include interventions aimed at people's mental health.