Consumer Behavior of Young People in the Context of Health and COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia

Abstract

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the whole world, including Slovakia, there were changes in people's habits and consumer behavior, as well as an intervention in a healthy lifestyle. As a result of the extremely rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, habits have changed in terms of consumer behavior and health, which has also affected young people's lives. The main objective of this study was to identify consumer behavior of young people including their lifestyle, eating habits, and purchasing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 300 respondents up to 35 years participated in the questionnaire survey. Nonparametric and multivariate statistics were applied. The results showed that young respondents did not record decrease in physical activity nor increase in weight. However, the majority of them increased the consumption of nutritional supplements. The most important factors during purchase of healthy food were the taste from previous experiences and the quality. Furthermore, respondents indicated that they did not record an increase neither in using online platforms for fast food delivery nor purchasing food online.