Relación del estado nutricional con los hábitos alimentarios y la autopercepción de la imagen corporal en tiempos de COVID-19 en adultos jóvenes voluntarios de la Cruz Roja Ecuatoriana Junta Chimborazo 2022

Abstract

One characteristic of a young adult is that they mainly consume foods high in fat, sodium, and simple sugars. It could be due to economic, social, or cultural factors, because of time, or because they are easier to acquire and consume; these factors along with COVID 19 have caused the rate of overweight and obesity to increase. The objective of this research is to relate nutritional status with eating habits and self-perception of body image in times of covid-19 in young adults who are volunteer members at the Ecuadorian Red Cross Chimborazo 2022 board. It is an observational, descriptive research of cross-sectional and analytical cohort. For descriptive statistics, tables and graphs of measurements and frequencies were made for the qualitative and quantitative variables. For the inferential statistics, the chi-square test was applied to relate the qualitative variables. Likewise, the scores of both variables were related through the Pearson and Spearman correlation. As a result, it was observed in the study carried out on eighty-three young adult volunteer members (thirty-three men and fifty women) that there is a relationship between nutritional status, eating habits and self-perception of body image. The confidence level is that of 95% and a significance value of 0.000 with a p-value of 0.000 which is less than the significance value. As a conclusion, it could be observed that worldwide overweight and obesity is already considered a global pandemic that affects both physically and psychologically all age groups. Consequently, it has caused non-communicable diseases, and problems in the self-perception of their body image. This has generated inadequate eating habits with the aim of reaching the demanding standards imposed by society.