The Role of Nutrition Knowledge in Dietary Adjustments During COVID-19 Pandemic

Knowledge/awareness significantly influences people’s dietary choices, lifestyle, and inadvertently their health outcomes;hence it is imperative that people have correct information with regards to food and health. This study was carried out to establish the role of nutrition knowledge on dietary choices and habits of people in Calabar, especially after the hard COVID-19 lockdown, and to ascertain whether it had positive or negative effect on the lifestyle of the people. It consisted of a cross-sectional survey in Calabar, Cross River State – Nigeria. An online questionnaire was prepared after sample size determination and its content validated. The questionnaire was designed to gather socio-economic data, lifestyle of the participants (young adults), and changes in dietary intake/health before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, while the questionnaire link was circulated for 6 weeks (April/May, 2021). Descriptive statistics was used to define the proportion of responses for each question and Pearson’s correlation was used to check for association between variables. Most participants were undergraduates depending on parents/sponsors. Financial decline seemed to have led to a drop in food consumption post lockdown. Many (82.6%) respondents recorded high nutrition knowledge scores (NKS) and 83.1% of the respondents had high health scores. The results show that NKS influenced the kind of foods the respondents consumed frequently and there was a positive correlation between NKS consumption of fruits/vegetables. NKS had effect on their access to healthy foods and it varied significantly with respondent’s total health score. No association existed between NKS and the reason for skipping meal - ‘lack of time to prepare meals’. Nutrition knowledge and proper enlightenment, did play a major role in dietary choices (despite limited resources), thus ensuring adequate nutrition and reduced health problems (most respondents recorded high health scores) in the face of a pandemic. This study affirms the efficacy of nutrition education and awareness in ensuring healthy dietary choices, optimal health and reduced risks of diseases.