Evaluation of the relationship between the use of dietary supplements and nutritional status with anxiety levels of adult individuals during the COVID-19 epidemic

This study was conducted with the voluntary participation of 600 individuals, (mean age 31.7±11.86 years) 197 males and 403 females, between the ages of 19-64 in order to evaluate the relationship between the use of dietary supplements and nutritional status with anxiety levels of adults during the COVID-19 epidemic period. Study data include of individuals demographic characteristics, health information, nutritional habits, dietary supplement use, physical activity status, anthropometric measurements (body weight and height), COVID-19 Phobia Scale (C19P-S), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), food consumption frequency, and food consumption records were obtained through an online questionnaire, Body Mass Index (BMI) and healthy eating index scores (HEI-2015) of all individuals were calculated. At the end of the study %53 of individuals had a change in their eating habits during the COVID-19 period (p<0.05), %48.7 of those who had a change in their eating habits had a more unhealthy diet (p>0.05), %49.8 had an appetite, %34.2 was found to have an increase in the number of meals. The rate of using dietary supplement among individuals is %40 (p<0.001). It has been found that the most frequently used dietary supplements are vitamin D (%57.5), vitamin C (%47.9), and multivitamin (%30.8) respectively. It was observed that the rate of doing physical activity decreased in both genders during the COVID-19 period (p <0.01) while the mean body weight and BMI increased significantly (p<0.01). Anxiety about COVID-19 is higher in individuals who started using dietary supplements during the pandemic period and female; it was found that anxiety levels increased as age decreased (p<0.05). The total HEI-2015 scores of male and female individuals during the pandemic period are 49.7±7.89 and 52.7±10.37, respectively (p<0.01) and %38.4 of males and %61.6 of females have poor diet quality according to their healthy eating index scores. During the COVID-19 period, it is important to reduce the anxiety levels of individuals, to support them psychologically and to raise awareness of individuals about adequate and balanced nutrition, physical activity and the correct use of dietary supplements in order to adapt to the new lifestyle.