COVID-19 Pandemic and Lifestyle Changes: Impact on School Students

Background: Due to COVID-19, a pandemic of acute respiratory syndrome in humans (SARS-CoV-2) led to the social isolation globally as a precautionary step to save humans. There is concern regarding the impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on dietary habits, screen time, sleep duration and physical activity of young children and adolescents. Accordingly, the present study analyzed the lifestyle behaviors of school going children residing in Saudi Arabia. Methods: The present study was conducted using an online survey platform and its designated link was distributed through social media. The study sample was com-posed of 432 (166 males and 266 females) school students. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. The first section included general and anthropometric characteristics of the participants. The second section included the information related to dietary pattern and the third section included the information related to changes in the activity pattern among participants. Results: Some good habits such as slight increase in physi-cal activity and sleep duration, increase in the number of meals, increased consumption of fruit, vegetables and red meat has been observed among all age groups, but at the same time increased consumption of unhealthy food, too much increased screen time has also been observed among all. Conclusion: Public health officials are suggested to increase their focus on lifestyle management of school students especially in tragic times like COVID-19 to enhance the wellbeing of population.