Increased alcohol consumption and unhealthy habits, in addition to worsening moods and loss of income, especially among the poorest, were some of the data mapped by the ConVid Behavior Survey, which released a specific report on the state of São Paulo recently. Carried out by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), in partnership with Unicamp and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), the research aimed to verify how the pandemic affected the lives of Brazilians, taking into account that social isolation was one of the main recommendations for protecting people.
The results of the Behavior Survey may contribute to a better understanding of the impact of quarantine on the health of Brazilians and also to guide actions aimed at minimizing the adverse effects brought about by prolonged social isolation. “It’s a situation we’ve never experienced in the country. So the objective was to check what is also happening in the area of health and, based on this diagnosis, see how to help the population”, says professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Unicamp, Marilisa Berti de Azevedo Barros, one of the coordinators of the search.
For her, one of the aspects that draws attention is the percentage of people who frequently feel sad. “This aspect of sadness that is affecting many people, along with the state of anxiety, and shows that it is necessary to help them deal with it, know how to work with it, to preserve mental health and health in general”.
The researchers involved in the research are now working on analyzing each of the aspects raised in more depth in order to formulate recommendations for the population. However, Marilisa already highlights that eating healthy and practicing physical activity - habits that declined during the pandemic - are indications of the World Health Organization (WHO) in order to preserve health.
Research
The research was carried out using a web questionnaire. In the state of São Paulo, they participated 11.863 people, from different municipalities, who answered the questions between April 24th and May 24th, 2020. The sample was calibrated using data from the 2019 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) to obtain the same distribution by sex, age group, race/color, and level of education. of the state's population.
Global data on the panorama in Brazil can be obtained at research website. Check out some results regarding the state of São Paulo:
Insulation intensity
The majority of the population in the State of São Paulo (60,4%) stayed at home, only going out to shop at supermarkets and pharmacies; 15,7% stayed strictly at home, only leaving due to the need for health care. This percentage was 10,2% in young adults, but reached 31,7% in the elderly.
Of adults aged 30 to 59, 29,7% continued working and going out, but taking certain precautions. Among the elderly, the percentage who continued working and leaving was 10%.
Socioeconomic impacts
In the entire population, 55,3% of people reported a decrease in family income and 6,3% were left without income.
Income losses hit the poorest population hardest (per capita income less than half the minimum wage). In this group, 9,4% were without income and only 26,4% managed to maintain the same income, while in the richest segment (4 minimum wages or more) these percentages were 6,9% and 48,8% respectively.
91% of self-employed workers had a reduction or no income.
Health impact
In the population of the State of São Paulo, 26,5% of adults reported that their health had worsened due to the pandemic.
The percentage of people at risk of worsening Covid-19 due to having a chronic disease (diabetes, hypertension, asthma/lung disease, heart disease, cancer) was 35,3%. This percentage reached 54,8% among the elderly, but 22,3% of young adults also had one of these diseases.
Among people who had chronic back problems (32,7% of the population), 56,6% reported increased pain. Among those who did not have a back problem, 40% started to have back pain during the pandemic, probably due to changes in their usual activities.
State of mind
During the analyzed period of the pandemic, a large part of the São Paulo population had problems with their mood: 39% felt sad/depressed and 50,9% felt anxious/nervous frequently (often or always). Young adults (18-29 years old) had much higher percentages than the elderly: 54,9% with frequent sadness compared to 25% of the elderly, and 69,7% with frequent anxiety compared to 31,4% of the elderly. elderly.
Women reported mood problems more frequently than men: the percentage of women who felt sad/depressed frequently was 48,4%, while among men it was 28,5% and the percentage who felt anxious/nervous It was often 60,1% among women and 40,6% among men.
Alcohol/cigarette consumption and eating habits
In the entire population, 18,4% reported an increase in the use of alcoholic beverages during the pandemic and this percentage was higher in people aged 30 to 39 years (27,4%) and with a higher level of education (26,7%) . The increase in alcohol consumption was 2 times higher in those who reported always feeling sad or depressed and more than 3 times higher in those who always felt anxious during the pandemic
Of the total population, 15,7% are smokers and 28% of them increased the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
The consumption of healthy foods decreased during the epidemic. On the other hand, the percentage of consumption of unhealthy foods on two or more days per week increased.
Physical activity
The percentage of active individuals, that is, those who practiced at least 150 minutes of physical activity weekly, was 30,5% before the pandemic, falling to 14,2% during the pandemic.
On the other hand, the habit of watching television for three hours or more increased from 21% to 52% in the total population of the state of São Paulo.
