Food consumption and remote working conditions among Brazilian Primary Schools teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Teaching work, which is characterized by being exhausting, with a significant workload, with synchronous and/or asynchronous remote classes. Objective: To describe associations between the working conditions of school teachers at home and their food consumption during the suspension of face-to-face classes. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study using a self-administered online questionnaire with 15,372 working teachers from Minas Gerais, Brazil. The dependent variables analyzed were the consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods. Independent variables included sociodemographic factors, remote work conditions, understanding of online technologies, computer access, and quality of Internet connection. The Poisson model with robust variance was used to determine the association between working conditions and food consumption. Results: In the analysis of the adjusted multivariate model, there was a significant association between eating habits and the following variables: gender, age, working hours (per week), feelings regarding teachers’ work during the pandemic, working hours during the pandemic and quality work internet connection. Our data shows that teachers’ remote working conditions are associated with worse food consumption. They also showed that working hours equal to or greater than 40 hours per week, feelings of dissatisfaction with working conditions during the pandemic, increased working hours during the pandemic and poor quality of internet connection were variables correlated with the consumption of unhealthy foods. Conclusions: Remote working conditions during the pandemic influenced primary school teachers’ food choices. More studies are needed to delve deeper into issues related to teachers’ working conditions and the implications for food choices.