Changes in Student’s Breakfast and Snack Consumption during the Second COVID-19 Lockdown in Portugal: A Five-Wave Study

Paula Magalhães (), Beatriz Pereira, Francisco Garcia, Catarina Vilas, Tânia Moreira and Pedro Rosário
Additional contact information
Paula Magalhães: School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-052 Braga, Portugal
Beatriz Pereira: School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-052 Braga, Portugal
Francisco Garcia: School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-052 Braga, Portugal
Catarina Vilas: School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-052 Braga, Portugal
Tânia Moreira: School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-052 Braga, Portugal
Pedro Rosário: School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-052 Braga, Portugal

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: The circumstances of the COVID-19 lockdown affected many students’ life spheres, including their feeding patterns and snack intake. The main goals of the present study were to: (a) analyze the changes in students’ breakfast and snacking consumption during lockdown, and (b) analyze changes in the content of the students’ snacks using the Healthy Eating Index. This study analyzed data from a sample of 726 students from 36 classes from the late elementary (i.e., fifth grade) through high school (i.e., twelfth grade) from two public schools in the north of Portugal. Data were collected in five moments during the 2020/2021 school year, pre-, during, and post-second lockdown moments. Throughout the five moments, almost 90% of the students ate breakfast, and the majority brought snacks from home to eat in school. Surprisingly, there was an increase in the quality of the snacks consumed during lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown moments (e.g., consumption of more whole and total fruits and less consumption of food with added sugar, saturated fats, refined grains, and fatty acids). Suggestions for healthy behavior promotion will be discussed, such as improving the school food environment and teaching children to prepare healthy lunch boxes.

Keywords: breakfast; snacking; lockdown; COVID-19; children; students; feeding patterns; healthy eating index; healthy behavior promotion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3034/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3034/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3034-:d:1062895

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().