Factores de asociación de la pandemia de Covid-19 en el proceso de comensalidad de estudiantes de una universidad pública de Bahia, Brasil

Resumen

Commensality, which represents the act of sharing meals with others, plays a fundamental role in human health and sociability, standing out as a relevant topic for public health. This study aimed to analyze the factors associated with changes in commensality among university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a cross-sectional and analytical study, carried out with health students from a public university in Bahia, based on a structured questionnaire. In the univariate analysis, categorical variables were calculated based on absolute and relative frequencies. For the analysis of the association between independent variables and commensality, Odds Ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The study included 274 students, most of whom were, on average, 25.5 years old, cisgender women (219; 79.9%), single (247; 90.1%), black (101; 36.8%), without individual income (202; 73.7%), but with a family income above two minimum wages (135; 49.2%), and without social assistance or benefits (211; 77%). The importance of eating at the table was recognized by 79.9% (219), and during the pandemic, 68.6% (188) cooked their meals. Additionally, the results of this investigation showed that the factors associated with the risk of not practicing commensality include: students over 30 years of age (OR: 2.75; CI: 1.04; 7.25) and individuals who ate most of their meals in their room (OR: 9.69; CI: 3.78; 24.8). It was observed that students who considered it important to eat at the table with their families (OR: 0.15; CI 0.02; 0.90), on the contrary, had factors associated with the practice of commensality. This study contributes to a deeper discussion about commensality, as well as its effects on students' health in the context of significant social and sanitary changes.