Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teenagers’ diet

Abstract

Adolescence defines an intense period of growth and de­velop­ment, being a bridge to adult life, and a balanced diet is essential and often difficult for adolescents to achieve. We wanted to see how the lifestyle and body weight of ado­les­cents were influenced during the COVID-19 pan­de­mic, so we applied a questionnaire in the high schools of Bistriţa-Năsăud county, the study batch being formed of 564 ques­tion­naires. Thus, we noticed that the average body weight in­creased slightly during the COVID-19 pan­de­mic, the per­cen­tage of those who respected the three main meals de­creased, the average fruit and vegetable con­sum­p­tion was 2-3 portions per week, moderate to severe phy­si­cal ac­ti­vity daily was relatively low, and most considered that the presence of fast food stores and restaurants near edu­ca­­tio­nal institutions, along with the circle of friends, had an in­flu­ence on food choices. We consider it useful to introduce pro­grams to promote balanced nutrition in schools along with health strategies aimed at students’ access to healthy food during the time they spend at school.