Food insecurity, eating behaviour, and relative weight change among young adults in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the association between food insecurity, eating behaviour and relative weight change among Malaysian young adults in the aftermath of the pandemic-led lockdown. Socio-demographics, body height, and body weight were self-reported by the young adults. Food security was assessed using the 8-item validated Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), while the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-Revised 18-item (TFEQ-R18) was adopted to evaluate the eating behaviour of young adults. Of the 447, 45.9% maintained the same body weight as before the pandemic-led lockdown. While almost half of the young adults (47.2%) were food secure, about one-fourth (24.8%) suffered moderate-to-severe food insecurity. Meanwhile, the standardised raw scores for all the eating behaviour subscales were in the ascending order of cognitive restraint (49.37 ± 18.60) < uncontrolled eating (50.61 ± 20.37) < emotional eating (50.68 ± 24.50). The findings of the Sobel test indicated that the mediation effects of eating behaviour were not statistically significant (p > 0.05), suggesting that eating behaviour (cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating) did not mediate the relationship between moderate-to-severe food insecurity and relative weight change. Health promotion interventions such as introducing food assistance programs, offering incentives for nutritious food purchases, and re-emphasising healthy eating are essential to rectify food insecurity and disordered eating among Malaysians.