RESEARCH ROUND-UP
IT’S A LOCK IN Lockdown led to us eating less fruit and veg, taking less exercise and boozing more. The UEA’s Dr Felix Naughton talks to Kath Hudson about his research into lifestyle habits under lockdown…
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lthough there sleep and substance use. were winners This was backed up with and losers, qualitative interviews with our research a sample of the group. indicated the lockdowns Follow up surveys were has a negative impact conducted at three and six on lifestyle behaviours. months and 12 months. The main problem will be As the UK population if some of these negative struggled to adapt to life Dr Felix Naughton changes turn into enduring under lockdown, working at habits once normality resumes,” home, being furloughed, or coping says Dr Felix Naughton, lead researcher with the stress of being a key worker, on the University of East Anglia’s C‐19 as well as dealing with the ever present health behaviour and well‐being daily anxiety of the virus, and sometimes home tracker study. “Just a small negative change schooling, the survey suggested unhealthy in lifestyle behaviour would result in a later habits and negative coping strategies jump in prevalence of chronic disease and were more prevalent than a detox and death when converted to a national scale.” a jog. Worsening unhealthy behaviours The study kicked off in April 2020, just were most associated with being younger, after the first lockdown was announced. female and having a higher BMI. A cohort of more than 1000 UK-based “On average, people’s health behaviour residents were assessed for 84 days, via worsened in the early stages of the a daily survey asking about symptoms, pandemic,” says Naughton. “And even mood, wellbeing, nutrition, physical activity, short term unhealthy habits can impact
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the immune response, which is not what you want in a pandemic.”
Reaching for the wine
Overall, people drank more alcohol. Among the general population the more affluent socio-economic groups drink more frequently, but the lower groups have a tendency to binge drink. The research suggested a general uptick in drinking to cope. “There was a gender difference in alcohol consumption,” explains Naughton. “Men drank more in each episode, but women were drinking more frequently, which some studies suggest is www.HCMhandbook.com
