INTRODUCTION:

Confinement due to COVID-19 pandemic caused changes in lifestyles, namely on children's eating habits and physical activity.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate lifestyle changes in students from the 3rd year of basic education of schools from Marco de Canaveses county, during the second confinement, compared to the period of traditional classroom lessons.

METHODOLOGY:

Descriptive observational cross-sectional study applied to a convenience sample of the 210 students, with a mean age of 8 years (sd 0.51), through the self-completion of an online questionnaire by the guardians, between April 29th and June 18th. The questionnaire consisted of seven groups: 1) sociodemographic questions, 2) general questions about eating habits, nutritional status and physical activity; 3) guardians concerns about the child's lifestyle; 4) emotional changes; 5) frequency of food consumption;

occurrence of episodes of emotional intake; and 7) practice of physical activity.

RESULTS:

As reported by the guardians, 36.7% of children increased their food intake, 56.2% increased snacks consumption, 58.6% decreased physical activity and 32.4% increased weight during the second confinement. Students who gained weight had a higher food intake and frequency of snacking and lower physical activity. Students, whose parents feel able to transmit healthy eating habits, increased their consumption of vegetables and decreased their consumption of rice/pasta/potatoes and sweets. Higher values of emotional overingestion were associated with higher food intake, higher frequency of snacking and weight gain.

CONCLUSIONS:

About half of the sample negatively altered their lifestyle in terms of diet and physical activity, and about a third gained weight. The encouragement and adoption of healthy lifestyles by guardians influenced the children's food intake.

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