Since the beginning of the pandemic, Brazilians have become less physically active and have started to eat worse. The effects of the crisis were more severe among the unemployed and people with less education. The conclusion is from the telephone survey Covitel, Vital Strategies and the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel).
From the pre-pandemic until the 1st quarter of this year, the consumption of fruits and vegetables among Brazilians who lost their jobs in the pandemic fell by 37%. The rate of people in the category who ate fruit five times a week or more dropped from 42.6% to 26.7%. The drop in consumption of vegetables among those who lost their jobs had a similar behavior: from 44.2% to 27.6%.
In recent years, Brazil has had a rise in unemployment and an explosion in prices.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in the first quarter of this year, the country had 12 million unemployed (11.2%). In the other groups of the population (those who continue to work and those who were already without a job before the emergence of covid-19), there was no statistically significant reduction in consumption.
“Basically, what the pandemic did was make everything worse in the most vulnerable. Whether poorer, black or women in some cases. It is a pandemic that has caused an increase in inequalities that unfortunately already existed”, highlights epidemiologist Pedro Hallal , involved in the research.
Other data show that the impact on food was stronger among the vulnerable. The proportion of those who consume fruit five days a week or more fell by 17% among the least educated – who studied up to eight years. For the black and brown population, the decline was 15.9%. For experts, behind this is the increase in food added to the retraction of income.
“Just look at the price of tomatoes, vegetables, fruit. It has increased a lot”, says Hallal. In one year, of the more than 400 items monitored by the IBGE, the carrot is the most expensive in the accumulated: high of 166.17%. Followed by tomato (+94.55%) and pepper (+80.44%).
At the same time that the diet worsened, the unemployed and less educated began to practice less physical activity in their free time (equivalent to at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week). The leisure asset rate dropped 30% for job losers; 39% for those who have never worked; and 30% for those who studied up to eight years.
Worsening diet and reduced physical activity are a cause for concern, as they are factors for chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – seven of the ten leading causes of death in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Specialists indicate that it is necessary to fight inequalities and “invert the pyramid”, that is, invest more in prevention to spend less on treatment.
Interior
Covitel sought to assess the impact of the pandemic on risk factors for chronic noncommunicable diseases in the adult population aged 18 years and over. The more than 9 thousand respondents gave answers regarding the pre-pandemic period and the first quarter of this year. The research innovated by doing half of the interviews by mobile phone and also looking for residents of the interior of the country, not only the capitals.
As much as it has identified a setback in the risk factors for these diseases, especially among the most vulnerable, Covitel shows stability in the diagnoses of diabetes and hypertension – which may indicate underreporting. “Historically, we know that the number of people with these diseases in the country is increasing”, warns Luciana Sardinha, Technical advisor for Public Health and Epidemiology at Vital Strategies.
