Impact of COVID-19 on the body mass index of school students in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The precautionary restrictions that were imposed on school students in Saudi Arabia have significantly influenced school students' lifestyles and nutrition intake. This paper aims to reveal the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on school students' body mass index (BMI) in the Al-Ahsa region, which is located in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The study used cross-sectional data that was collected randomly from school students representing all school levels in Al-Ahsa. The paper used a seemingly unrelated regression method, paired t-test, and McNaimar test to examine the factors affecting students' BMI scores before and after the Coronavirus pandemic. The most critical factor that affected the BMI of the school student indirectly is distance learning, where students spent a lot of time in front of electronic devices to study, learn, use social media, and play electronic games. These led to a decrease in their physical activity and an increase in food consumption. All these factors led to a significant increase in BMI for male and female school students. Also, the results show that fruit consumption is associated with a lower BMI score, whereas vegetable consumption is associated with a higher BMI score. The study also revealed that students infected with the Coronavirus have lower BMI scores, on average than students who were not infected with the Coronavirus. The largest impact on school students' BMI is associated with social media usage and Coronavirus infection. To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first paper to use a seemingly unrelated regression method to reveal the impact of socio-economic and nutritional variables on students’ BMI.