The effects of working from home on eating behaviors and physical activity levels of individuals during COVID–19 pandemic

This research was conducted to compare the eating behaviors and physical activity levels of individuals working in the home and workplace environment during the COVID-19 process. The research was conducted comparatively among 168 individuals working at a desk job (n = 84) who started working at home during the pandemic and the group working in the workplace environment in their usual way (n = 84). Data were collected by online survey method. In the first part of the questionnaire used to collect the data, there are questions about the sociodemographic characteristics of the individuals, the frequency of food consumption and their lifestyle habits during the pandemic period. Eating behavior of the participants was determined by the "Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ)" and their physical activity levels were also determined by the "International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Short Form (IPAQ)". When the food consumption frequencies and life change situations were compared between the two groups; while the consumption of meat and meat products increased in the workplace environment (p<0.05); In individuals working at home, the consumption of eggs, pastries, packaged/ready foods, acidic beverages and tea-coffee, snack amounts, and sleep duration increase were found to be statistically significant (p<0,05; p<0,01, p<0,001). When DEBQ scores were examined, the average scores of individuals working in a home environment (26.63±7.43; 34.57±14.61; 32.23±8.62; 93.43±24.88, respectively), for external eating, emotional eating, restrictive eating and DEBQ scores were higher than those of individuals working in the workplace environment (24.31±7.43; 32.28±14.79; 30.36±7.96; 87.05±23.08, respectively), but there was no big and significant difference between the two groups (p>0.05). A statistically significant difference was found between the physical activity levels of the groups in the study (p<0.05). The rate of minimally active individuals is higher in those working at home (p<0.01); the very active rate is higher and statistically significant in the workplace environment (p<0.05). As a result, in the examined group, starting to work in the home environment may affect physical activity, eating habits and eating behaviors in individuals.