Obesity risk throughout collective quarantine for the COVID-19

Ali Alsarhan; Aiman Shoiab; Ahmad Gardouh; Alia Khwaldeh; Moath Alqaraleh

Ali Alsarhan Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jadara University, Irbid, Jordan
Aiman Shoiab Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jadara University, Irbid, Jordan
Ahmad Gardouh Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jadara University, Irbid, Jordan
Alia Khwaldeh Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jadara University, Irbid, Jordan
Moath Alqaraleh Pharmacological and Diagnostic Research Center (PDRC), Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan

Keywords: COVID-19, obesity, lifestyle, body weight, physical activity

Abstract

The novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) presented an opportunity to conduct an online survey to research the relationships between changes in body weight, physical activity and lifestyle during an unprecedented occurrence of forced isolation or quarantine among the population of Jadara University. We distributed an electronic questionnaire (cross-sectional) in Jadara University, Jordan, between March and May 2020, where a total of 200 students were approached (43.8% males and 56.2% females). Of 200 questionnaires returned, during the period of semi-lockdown, both females and males increased body weight significantly (p<0.05). Changes in body weight are inversely correlated with changes in the number of meals and increased stress during the quarantine. Quarantine carries some long-term effects on the rate of food intake and sleeping also affects the total body weight. With the prolonged quarantine, these figures are subject to increase consequently and the drawback on health status may drop to a considerably large percentage in the community.