Perfil nutricional, odontológico y comportamental de adolescentes españoles en la pandemia de COVID-19

Abstract

The current generation of adolescents is growing up in a multifactorial world where, in addition to facing all the changes inherent to this stage of growth, they have had to deal with a global crisis such as COVID-19. Although the restrictions have been hard for the entire population, students have suffered them intensely given their strorg need for social connection. In this context and during their development, the influences received by family or friends, as well as the social status or environment in which they live have been able to implement unhealthy habits that generate subsequent consequences on their health. Given that the situation was and is exceptional, previous studies did not provide significant data that matched those experienced in recent years. For this reason, the present doctoral thesis was proposed with the aim of analyzing the habits of adolescents and evaluating the possible consequences that these habits could have on their behavioral, nutritional and dental profile, as well as their comparison in pre-pandemic times. For this purpose, a review of dietary patterns during childhood and their possible consequences during adolescence was done and then, similar nutritional patterns of the study subjects during the pandemic were analyzed, as well as other health-related habits such as daily physical activity, daily use of cell phones, hours of sleep per week, oral health or harmful habits such as tobacco or alcohol consumption. In addition, the relationship of the above variables with the development of executive functions and the influence of these on aspects such as the level of stress, anxiety or pe rsonality of the adolescents were tested. The results showed that, during childhood, factors such as maternal habits, family socioeconomic status or culture can influence the development not only of the child, but also of the adolescent he or she will become. In addition, the research showed that there is a differentiation between the diet followed by males and females but the psychological profile does not show differences with respect to the perception of loneliness, as well as the degree of inflexibility; moreover, these last two variables are related to each other and greater loneliness implies less cognitive flexibility; that regardless of the psychological profile of the students during the COVID-19 crisis, two eating patterns were established among the adolescents, one healthier and the other less healthy; finally, we saw how the Body Mass Index is related to the ability to adapt to task change and inhibition. These results reveal the importance of taking into account the social and economic context when examining adolescent mental health factors. Ultimately, future research will seek to implement multidisciplinary interventions that develop and program actions that prOmote healthier habits in schools by creating adherence among students.