Challenges in Feeding Children Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Systematic Review of Changes in Dietary Intake Combined with a Dietitian's Perspective

Authors

Heather Campbell
Alexis C Wood

Publication Date

9-1-2021

Journal

Current Nutrition Reports

DOI

10.1007/s13668-021-00359-z

PMID

33993426

PMCID

PMC8123103

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

5-15-2021

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Adolescent, COVID-19, Child, Diet, Family, Feeding Behavior, Humans, Nutritionists, Pandemics, COVID-19, Diet quality, Systematic review, Disparities

Abstract

Purpose of review: To examine the evidence that the dietary quality of children changed between the period preceding the COVID-19 pandemic and the first year during the pandemic.

Recent findings: A systematic review of the evidence for dietary changes occurring as a result of the pandemic-related restrictions, in Part I of this article, yielded 38 original research articles. These articles had conflicting results, some describing improvements in overall quality and some describing deteriorations. As a whole the studies were characterized by a low study quality, and children were poorly represented. Taken together, these studies do not provide enough evidence to draw conclusions about whether dietary habits changed or not as a result of the pandemic. However, in a wider, narrative review of the psychosocial changes occurring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the known associations of these factors with a dietary intake in Part II, we conclude that there is a reason to expect that the dietary quality of children might have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. One the one hand, the literature fails to provide conclusive evidence on changes in the dietary quality of children resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the broader literature supports the hypothesis that children's dietary quality will have declined during the pandemic. Taken together, we urgently need more high-quality research on children's changes in dietary intake occurring over the pandemic. This will provide important information on whether any potential long-term consequences of such changes, if they exist, need to be examined and ameliorated.