Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Dietary Practices for Mothers in Japan

Abstract

To the best of our knowledge, changes in mothers’ dietary behaviors or perceptions of dietary intake during the COVID-19 pandemic have not been extensively discussed. Therefore, the present study aimed to clarify how the dietary behaviors of mothers living with their children changed during the pandemic in Japan. Ordered probit and interval regressions were applied to individual data for mothers living with children under 18 years of age from five independently conducted Surveys of Attitudes toward Food and Nutrition Education (Shokuiku in Japanese). The estimation results showed that although mothers were more likely to eat dinner with their families during the pandemic, attention to healthy dietary practices, frequency of eating nutritionally balanced food, and dietary practices for preventing lifestyle-related diseases were negatively affected by the pandemic. In conclusion, mothers were more likely to decrease their commitment to a healthy and well-balanced diet during the pandemic than before it. Further research based on the latest datasets with detailed information over the long-term is required.