Covid-19: Introduction of a new lifestyle and diet among the Malaysians

Abstract

Abstract Background The stay-at-home conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic significantly alter the Malaysian lifestyle. All Malaysians faced difficulties adopting the new lifestyle, handling the virus transmission, and worrying about family and friends. A hypothetico-deductive technique has been conducted to find out the new lifestyle and the difficulties of adopting the new lifestyle of Malaysians. The findings of our study were reliable where the Cronbach's Alpha values were all above (0.70) with the sample, and the entire sample of 112 was sufficient to provide the value for the medium effect size for the computation of the F-tests. Results It seemed that the jobs traveling and outdoor sports time were somewhat reduced. In contrast, indoor sports activities, online games, physical exercises, and the number of staycations during the pandemic stayed the same. However, religious activities, Body Mass Index, online shopping, sleeping time, amount of anxiety, amount of caffeine, medical consumption, watching movies, and watching drama series during Covid-19 was somewhat increased. In addition, respondents' time spent on social media and online meetings during Covid-19 were much increased. We found no significant differences in the means of the dependent variables (Lifestyle of Covid-19) amongst all demographic characteristics except age and employment status. Conclusions In detail, the lifestyle of respondents aged 24 and below have significantly changed compared to their older counterparts. Besides, the lifestyles of unemployed, students and retirees have changed considerably compared to those who serve Government & Statutory Bodies. The results will help policymakers to make the right decisions about improving the quality of life after Corona.