An unintended consequence of Covid-19: Healthy nutrition

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic involving mass quarantines and stay at home orders in many nations has affected consumer behaviour including food intake. Despite the seriousness of the situation, spending more time at home may have had some unintended consequences for consumers. The aim of this study was to investigate the consequences of the current adverse circumstances on nutrition, within the framework of changes in attitude toward healthy eating, health consciousness, fear, and social influence of family, peers, and social media interactions. For this purpose, 732 participants, the majority of whom were female, aged between 26 and 55 years with university degrees, were surveyed online. Data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach. Based on results, family influence and social media influence were found to have positive effects on fear of Covid-19 and greater health consciousness. The effect of peer influence was only observed for health consciousness, not fear of Covid-19. Health consciousness and Covid-19 fears positively affected attitude and health consciousness, and attitude was positively related to healthy nutrition, indicating these individuals' beliefs about the healthiness of their current daily diets. Future research and practices may consider the effect of Covid-19 on humans' nutritional attitudes and behaviours based on our study so that health-related issues in the pandemic can be further examined and explained through nutritional consequences by researchers and practitioners in the future.