Search

In 2020, the first COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in food panic buying and excessive food stockpiling across many countries around the world. Many governments recommend keeping emergency food stocks for three to ten days for times of potential shortages in food supply. Based on data from an online survey conducted among Swiss inhabitants, we investigated the effect of knowledge level and stockpiling behaviour according to governmental stockpiling recommendations in normal times on the decision to build up more food stocks than usual during the first lockdown in 2020. For this purpose, we applied a combination of latent class analysis and logistic regression. Latent classes were constructed based on knowledge level and stockpiling behaviour according to governmental stockpiling recommendations in normal times. Subsequently, the information on class membership was used as predictor of the decision to excessively stockpile food during the first lockdown. The variable "class membership" revealed that respondents with a low knowledge level and food stocks below governmental recommendations in normal times had a 7.6 percentage points lower probability of excessively stockpiling food during the first lockdown than respondents with a high knowledge level and recommended food stocks in normal times. Excessive stockpiling was additionally driven by the worry that certain food products would disappear from the supermarket shelves entirely or would be in short supply. Moreover, regression results revealed that respondents who reduced their shopping frequency during the first lockdown in 2020 showed a higher probability of building up more food stocks than usual. Our findings are crucial for food suppliers and policymakers to understand the drivers of panic buying and to prevent this phenomenon in future crises., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, personal hygiene behaviours such as proper handwashing have gained significantly more attention and interpersonal contact is performed with great care. Disgust, as a disease-avoidance mechanism, can play an important role in the promotion of hygiene behaviour. We know from previous research that pathogen disgust can be a predictor of an individual's behaviour in the pandemic. Given that the pandemic greatly affects our food and eating behaviour, the current study aims to add to the existing evidence and to complement it by investigating the role of food-specific disgust in the pandemic. For that, we conducted an online survey in Germany in April 2020, while the pandemic was spreading in Europe. A total of 519 participants completed the survey and provided information about their COVID-19-related attitudes and behaviours and about their food disgust sensitivity. The results show that food disgust sensitivity is an important predictor for an individual's feelings, shopping behaviour, and disease-preventive behaviour related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that the success of political measures to fight the pandemic critically depends on the population to support and follow the proposed measures, a better understanding of the factors driving individual behaviour is key. Implications for pandemic management are discussed., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Feelings of disgust, a disease avoidance emotion, vary among individuals. The present study investigated if individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity predict the level of disgust evoked by crowded places. Interested in the universality of this relationship, we studied it across countries (Study 1), and examined temporal differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity (Studies 2 and 3). Participants completed a pathogen disgust scale and rated the level of disgust evoked by two crowded situations. Data were collected in 2018 (before the COVID-19 pandemic), in 2020 (at the height of the pandemic) and in 2022 (later in the pandemic). Across studies and countries, individuals' pathogen disgust sensitivity predicted the disgust evoked by the situations. Moreover, the data revealed a significant increase in pathogen disgust from 2018 to 2020, most likely because of higher pathogen presence during the pandemic, before significantly decreasing in 2022 after the pandemic had progressed. This study captures a rare opportunity, investigating how these crises relate to pathogen disgust sensitivity and the perception of crowded spaces. Further, our longitudinal study is among the first showing changes in pathogen disgust sensitivity over time and monitoring the effect of the pandemic. [Display omitted] • A temporary increase in pathogen disgust sensitivity was found for the pandemic. • After that, pathogen disgust levels decreased again in 2022. • Patterns of pathogen disgust are similar across eleven countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Remote work was connected to both healthy and unhealthy changes. • Prepared foods (fresh and frozen) recorded the greatest losses. • Homemade bread recorded the greatest increase. • The pandemic appears to foster inequalities. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of our everyday lives. To investigate these behaviour changes, an online survey was conducted with 1′028 individuals (51% female) in Switzerland between June and July 2020. The questions referred in particular to the lockdown in spring 2020. We put specific focus on the pandemic's impact on health-related behaviour, which includes food choice, physical activity and body weight management. For instance, participants reported whether and how their consumption of different foods changed during the lockdown. As a measure of healthy food choice, we chose consumption of vegetables and salad and in contrast, sweet snacks and alcohol consumption was used as a measure for unhealthy food choice. For physical activity and body weight, participants indicated whether it decreased, increased or did not change during the lockdown as compared before. In a next step, we investigated the influence of various predictors on health-related behaviour using multinomial logistic regression models. We find that the possibility to work remotely led to healthier food choices, that is, a reported increase in vegetable consumption and decrease in sweet snack consumption, but also to more unhealthy food choices and lifestyles, that is, a reported increase in alcohol consumption as well as an increase in sweet snack consumption. For weight change, the data indicated that individuals who worked remotely were more likely to gain or lose weight than individuals working from the office. Our findings demonstrate how individuals are affected differently by the pandemic and how complex the whole picture is. Further, these results are crucial in developing health recommendations for possible future lockdowns or health crises in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]