Essential workers reported that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected their dietary habits and quality of healthcare. Neil Roy, MBBS, research fellow, and Sylvia Rosas, MD, MSCE, staff physician at the Joslin Diabetes Center and director of the Latino Kidney Clinic at harvard, investigated the impact of COVID-19 on dietary habits and quality of healthcare in individuals with diabetes.
Drs. Rosas and Roy along with other Joslin Diabetes Center investigators created a survey of 92 items for patients to answer including COVID-19 diagnosis, general health, vaccines, exposures to COVID-19, access to healthcare, mental well-being, diet and lifestyle. Additionally, the survey asked patients to answer the following question: Please tell us how much you think COVID-19 impacted the quality of healthcare you receive now compared to before COVID-19. Researchers emailed the survey to adults who had visited Joslin during the 24 months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 1,189 patients completed the survey by Nov. 1, 2021. Overall, 50.8 percent of respondents were women. Mean patient age was 54.2 years old. In addition, 89.2 percent of patients were white, 21 percent were essential workers, 39 percent were college graduates, 94 percent had diabetes, 36 percent had hypertension and 8 percent had chronic kidney disease.
Surveys revealed about 38 percent of essential workers compared to 24 percent of nonessential workers eat less healthy often compared to before the pandemic. About 40 percent of essential workers reported that they limit sodium never or less often in their diet compared to 33 percent of nonessential workers. Surveys also revealed about 45 percent of the essential workers with diabetes felt the pandemic made their quality of health care "worse or a lot worse."
Dr. Roy explained, "The pandemic altered healthy eating habits in individuals with diabetes particularly among essential workers which suggests that it may be helpful for providers to talk to their patients about pandemic-related diet changes."