Quality of Life of Vegetarians during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil
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Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Health Sciences, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, University of Brasilia (UnB), Asa Norte, Brasilia 70910-900, DF, Brazil
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Department of Statistics, University of Brasilia, Brasilia 70910-900, DF, Brazil
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College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-Dong, Gwanjin-Gu, Seoul 143-747, Korea
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CBIOS (Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies), Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal
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Social Matters Research Group, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, C/Escritor Castilla Aguayo, 4, 14004 Córdoba, Spain
6
Public Policy Observatory, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago 7500912, Chile
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Rosa Casas
Nutrients 2021, 13(8), 2651; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082651
Received: 23 June 2021
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Revised: 20 July 2021
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Accepted: 23 July 2021
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Published: 30 July 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food, Nutrition, and Dietary Patterns during the COVID-19 Pandemic)
Health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic can negatively impact quality of life (QoL) due to higher levels of stress, social isolation, and uncertainties. In this scenario, distinct population groups might react differently. Vegetarians, who follow a non-conventional dietary pattern, could be more vulnerable to the abrupt changes in normal life routine and economic instability. Therefore, this study aimed at evaluating if the current pandemic situation somehow affected vegetarians’ QoL. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Brazil between 28 July and 14 September 2020 to evaluate the QoL in vegetarians during the pandemic period. Vegetarian adults replied to an online survey that included the VEGQOL and WHOQOL-BREF instruments to evaluate QoL and questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 1282 individuals participated. Only 3.8% had tested positive for COVID-19, but 39.9% affirmed having a family member who tested positive for the disease. Almost half (46.3%) of the sample had an income drop due to the pandemic. Results of QoL scores in the different subcategories of vegetarians were similar to previously published data. Individuals who had already tested positive for COVID-19 had lower QoL scores than those who did not test positive, but only in the VEGQOL. QoL was lower for the participants who declared that Sars-Cov-2 had already infected a family member for almost all the parameters evaluated. On the other hand, an income drop affected QoL only partially. Studying how vegetarians are influenced by such conditions contributes to the generation of relevant data that can be used to support healthcare and public policies in the future.
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Keywords:
COVID-19; pandemic; vegetarians; quality of life
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Hargreaves, S.M.; Nakano, E.Y.; Han, H.; Raposo, A.; Ariza-Montes, A.; Vega-Muñoz, A.; Zandonadi, R.P. Quality of Life of Vegetarians during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2651. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082651
AMA Style
Hargreaves SM, Nakano EY, Han H, Raposo A, Ariza-Montes A, Vega-Muñoz A, Zandonadi RP. Quality of Life of Vegetarians during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil. Nutrients. 2021; 13(8):2651. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082651
Chicago/Turabian StyleHargreaves, Shila M., Eduardo Y. Nakano, Heesup Han, António Raposo, Antonio Ariza-Montes, Alejandro Vega-Muñoz, and Renata P. Zandonadi. 2021. "Quality of Life of Vegetarians during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil" Nutrients 13, no. 8: 2651. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082651
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