RESEARCH ARTICLE


Nutrition-related Knowledge and Behaviour and Financial Difficulties during the COVID-19 Quarantine in Saudi Arabia



Noha M. Almoraie1, *, Mahitab A. Hanbazaza1, Najlaa M. Aljefree1, Israa M. Shatwan1
1 Department of Food and Nutrition, Faculty of Human Sciences and Design, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia


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Creative Commons License
© 2021 Almoraie et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at Department of Food and Nutrition, Faculty of Human Sciences and Design, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Tel: +966126952000; E-mail: nalmorie@kau.edu.sa


Abstract

Background:

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a severe global public health issue. Evaluating clinical readiness during a pandemic requires substantial awareness of public knowledge and the ability to predict behaviour when working with a highly pathogenic virus.

Objective:

This study examined nutrition-related knowledge and behaviours and financial difficulties related to COVID-19 among adults in Saudi Arabia.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 968 participants via an online questionnaire focusing on demographics, nutrition-related knowledge regarding COVID-19, nutrition-related behaviours, and financial difficulties under COVID-19 quarantine.

Results:

Female participants showed higher scores in knowledge (3.15 ± 0.87) and nutrition-related behaviour (5.49 ± 1.2) during COVID-19. Those aged 40 to 49 years had the highest knowledge score, while older participants (>50) showed more adherence to positive nutrition-related behaviour (P < 0.0001 for both). Higher education indicated higher knowledge scores (3.4 2 ± 0.86; P = 0.001) but not behaviour scores. High-income participants had the highest knowledge score (3.29 ± 0.96; P = 0.001), while middle income participants had the highest behaviour scores (5.52 ± 1.23; P = 0.01). Low-income participants faced more difficulties with food source availability, compared to high-income participants.

Conclusion:

This study’s results help in providing guidelines for planning and designing health education programmes for vulnerable groups.

Keywords: Knowledge, Nutrition-related behaviour, COVID-19, Saudi Arabia, Cross-sectional study, Quarantine.