Sociology Project

Impact of Pandemic on eating habits and lifestyle of students

Presented by- Presented to –

Astha Professor Sanjay Singh

BA.LLB (H) Semester 1 Section–A Professor, Sociology

ER- 210101035 RMLNLU

 Declaration

I hereby declare that the project report “impact of pandemic on

lifestyle and dietary habits’ submitted by me to Dr. Ram Manohar
Lohiya National Law University in partial fulfillment requirement for the
award of degree of BA.LLB (Hons) is a record of bonafide project work
carried out by me under the guidance of Prof Sanjay Singh.
 Acknowledgment

I would like to express my profound gratitude to all people who helped

me in completion of this project. I would like to especially thank my
subject teacher Prof Sanjay Singh for support, guidance and constant
encouragement throughout the project. Any word cannot suffice my
gratitude towards him for his precious help.

I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents for their kind

support and encouragement with helped me in completion of my
project.

I would also like thank my fellow batch mate who helped me in

conducting survey for this project. I would also thank library
department for providing relevant material for my project.
 Contents

1. Acknowledgement
2. Declaration
3. Introduction
4. Method of Study
5. Participation
6. Analysis and discussion
7. Conclusion
8. Reference
Introduction

A novel corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak was reported in Wuhan,

China, in December 2019. The COVID-19 virus has spread rapidly
globally and has been declared as a pandemic by world health
organization on 11th March 2020. In India on 30 January 2020 the first
confirmed COVID-19 case was reported and 22 new cases were
recognized on 4 March 2020 due to spread to the other parts of the
country. For the containment of the disease which could be easily
transmitted through droplets and small airborne particles containing
the virus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced nationwide
lockdown on 21st March 2020 for 21 days. During the sudden lockdown
in India, all places of public gatherings such as schools, cinemas,
restaurants, shopping complexes, higher educational institutions were
closed. This forced all people to live at home. It had drastically changed
lifestyle and eating habits of large number of people.

Major impact of pandemic can be observed in lifestyle in form eating

and physical activity level. Changes can be the result of availability of
resources .Young people confined at home lead to boredom. It leads to
stress eating. Another reason for change in lifestyle was availability of
resource. In the lockdown there was scarcity of fresh vegetable which
led increased consumption of high caloric ready to eat food. Since
pandemics started it forced individuals to change certain behaviors
instantly. It is of great interest of mine to document the change in
dietary habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly that developing
counties have encountered dietary transitions in the past.

This survey aims to study eating habits and lifestyle of people and
pandemic impact on it.
Aim of survey:

The main objective of study is to analyze the lifestyle, dietary habits of

people and impact of pandemic on it.

Methodology of the study

This survey was conducted through questionnaire prepared by me. It

was transmitted through social media platform including Whatsapp,
Instagram and Telegram for collection of data. The questionnaire was
divided into two sections. The first section was to collect the
demographic details of the sample. The second part contained the
questions regarding the changes in lifestyle and eating habits they
faced during pandemic.

Observation

According to survey conducted through questionnaire, there were 102

samples. Following are the demographic observations made through
this survey.

Gender Analysis

In this survey 42 males participated while 54 females answered the

questionnaire. There were 2 people who didn’t wished to disclose their
gender.
 Gender

Male
Female
Other

Age of Respondents

In this survey Majority of people where of age of between 15- 20. Only
two of the respondents were in age range of 40 and above. 10 people
ages are in range 20-25. There were 2 respondents in age range of 25-
30. There were two people in age range of 30-35. Most of the response
dents of this study are the youth of the nation.

Age of the respondents

45-50

35 -40

30-35

25-30

20-25

15-20

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Type of residence

Under this heading respondent were asked which type of area they
reside at urban or rural area. It is one of essential element to analyze
the lifestyle as there is difference of lifestyle between the people reside
at both places due to difference in availability of resources. According
to survey 90 people resides at urban area and 12 people resides at rural
area.

Residence

Rural
Urban
 Eating habits

While doing the survey I analyzed the eating preference and habits of
the individuals. They were given four choices – vegetarian, vegan, non –
vegetarian, and eggetarian (one who eats egg). Majority of the
respondent are vegetarian (53.9%) followed by non vegetarian that
comprises of (33.3%).Vegans (person that don’t consume milk and milk
products) comprises of 4% and eggeterian comprises of 7.8 %.

There were differences of frequency in intake of food. Majority of

people have three times of food (52%). Around 24.5% have four times a
meal. People consuming two times meal and five times meal are 20.6 %
and 1% respectively.

Most of the people have freshly cooked food (92.2%) while 4% percent
of people have ready to eat food on weekdays. Some of the people
have food from restaurant and mess.

On weekends, percentage of people having home cooked fell down as

compared to weekdays. Around 64.7 % people have food made at
home while others order from outside.
 Impact of pandemic on eating habits of People

During survey people were asked whether there is a change in

eating habits of people. Around 70 percent people said there is
change in pattern of eating.
According to survey there is change in appetite of people. After the
enforcement lockdown there was a sudden change way of living.
Majority of the people are started having home cooked food. In the
initial phase of lockdown people started having fast food cooked at
home.
Pandemic forced people to live at home. All the students were
attending online classes from home while most of adults were doing
work from home. Flexibility of having meals leads to increase in
habit of snacking in between of the day. Around 63.4 percent people
said they started snacking regularly in lockdown.

Increased habit of snacking lead to habit skipping the main meal. In

survey 74.7 % said due to pandemic they started skipping the main
meals of the day that are Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

After covid -19 , people became more aware about hygiene of food.
Around 60% people check cleanness of store before having food
outside. People also start in consuming more fresh food as
compared to pre pandemic. They also added more fruits in diet.
For the containment of disease, most of businesses were shut down.
This lead to decrease in income of the most of the family. During the
survey 61.2 % people said there was decrement in income. Due to
decrease of income there was change in eating habits of individual.
Around 61.6 % people said there was change in food habit due to
their new economic condition. They stopped ordering food from
outside.
 Impact of Pandemic on lifestyle

Covid -19 impacted lifestyle of people in many ways. According to

survey 61.4 % people said there is a change in lifestyle of people.
38.4%respondent said there is no change in their lifestyle. Rests of
them are not sure about effect of pandemic.

In the physical activity domain, most of the people (31.4% of

respondent) never exercised during the pandemic. Only 21.4% person
exercised daily during the lockdown. 15.7 % exercised once a week. Due
to lack of physical activity and sedentary lifestyle there are fluctuations
in weight of people.

According to this survey 84.6% gained weight while minimal percentage

i.e. 6.2 % lost weight during the pandemic. Rest of them does not
observe any change in weight in them. Due to the increase in weight
due to which it led to obesity. This can create many health issues most
common in them fattening of liver.

Another major change in lifestyle of individual is sleeping pattern. With

the availability of time, most of people start indulging in watching
shows, increased use of social media, online study and work lead to
drastic increase in screen time. It leads decrease quality and quantity of
sleep. This adversely impacted both physical and mental health of
individual. Study indicates that most of people were not able to get
proper sleep at right time. Many people started sleeping post 2 Am.
 Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented global event,

and its social and economic implications are affecting different age
groups in distinct ways. In this study date was presented regarding
eating habits and lifestyle of people. The

The study indicated a negative impact of the COVID-19 curfew on the

eating habits and physical activity levels, with a significant increase in
screen time and unhealthy eating habits, indicative of breakfast
skipping and a decreased consumption of dairy products.

The survey also observed there in BMI of individual due to unhealthy

munching habit and sedentary lifestyle of people.

This study also observed change in diet due decrease in income. Due to
decrease in income, people were avoiding expensive item to consume.
Many family stopped ordering food due to their financial condition.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it may have a long-term impact

on the eating habits, physical activity level, and sedentary time, while
negatively affected people physical and mental health. An
understanding of the eating habits and lifestyle of people during the
COVID-19 curfew will help in the implementation of more effective
health interventions and reform future recommendations about
physical activity and nutrition.

References
Del Rio C, Malani PN. COVID-19—new insights on a rapidly changing epidemic. JAMA 2020;323:1339-40.
[PubMed] [Google Scholar]