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Published:
8:30 AM January 22, 2021
A study by researchers from the University of East Anglia has found that people were eating around one portion less fruit and veg every day during the first lockdown than they were before the pandemic
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People’s health and wellbeing is one of the key areas of world-leading research that is undertaken at Norwich Research Park. And the impact of Covid-19 on people’s behaviours is the subject of a study just published by a team of researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) at Norwich Research Park.
The research - the first of its kind - looked at how lifestyle behaviours changed over the three months from April 2020, during the first national lockdown. More than 1,000 participants, predominantly from Norfolk, completed a daily survey answering questions on a range of lifestyle behaviours including physical activity, diet, sleep, smoking, drinking and drug use.
Published in the
British Journal of Health Psychology, it revealed that women drank more often than men but men drank in larger quantities than women per occasion. However, both men and women had one portion less of fruits and vegetables per day on average. They also exercised less during the lockdown.
Overall, the findings show that people’s lifestyle habits worsened early in the pandemic. The researchers said it is not at all surprising that this is the case since strict protocols likely made it harder for people to get groceries and exercise unhampered.
Co-author Caitlin Notley said these findings could help experts give people better advice on how best to protect their health amidst lockdowns. The study has particularly important implications since it comes as the country is once more plunged into a lockdown to cope with surging COVID-19 cases.
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