International Journal of Nursing

Children Dietary Habits and Quality of Sleep during COVID-19 Pandemic
Amira Mohamed Saad Khalil, Zeinab Elsayed Hafez Elsayed

Abstract Background& Aim
Background& Aim: Lack of outdoor activity, school closure during COVID-19 pandemic, are likely to disrupt children’s usual dietary habits and quality of sleep, so the aim of the study was to assess children dietary habits and quality of sleep during COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and method: A cross-sectional study was performed from 17 June 2020 until 1 July 2020. Children and adolescent aged from 8-18 years who were able to provide informed consent were included in the study (83) using convenience and snowball sampling methods. An online questionnaire was used by the researchers to obtain the necessary data. This tool comprises five parts. Part 1; Socio-demographic questionnaire. Part 2: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Part 3: assess the changing in daily dietary habits. Result: The Median and quartiles of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index is 11(7- 15). Nearly three quarters (73.5%) of the children had changes in their daily dietary habits. Conclusion: Children had poor sleep quality during COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly three quarters of the children had changes in their daily dietary habits. Recommendation: Establishing healthy sleep practices is important. A well-balanced diet is needed to increase children immunity during COVID-19 pandemic.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijn.v7n2a9