Table 1. Participants’ characteristics regarding sociodemographic and clinical aspects, physical activity, and fear of COVID-19 divided according to the intake of dietary supplements before the pandemic (n = 461, data collection in 2021).
| Previous ingestion of food supplement (n = 103) | No previous ingestion of food supplement (n = 358) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Age [Mean (SD)] | Years | 31.8 (8.2) | 31.8 (9.0) |
| Gender (%men) | 65† | 44† | |
| (%women) | 35† | 56† | |
| Education (%) | Elementary School | 3 | 3 |
| High school | 19 | 27 | |
| University education | 45 | 40 | |
| Postgraduate studies | 33 | 30 | |
| Occupation (%) | Student | 2 | 3 |
| Retired | 1 | 0.5 | |
| With occupation | 97 | 95.5 | |
| No occupation | 0 | 1 | |
| Remote work during pandemic (%) | 53 | 54 | |
| Nutritional classification (%) | Eutrophic | 39† | 45† |
| Overweight | 52† | 34† | |
| Obesity | 9† | 21† | |
| Smoker (%) | 5 | 8 | |
| Alcohol consumption (%) | 8 | 3 | |
| Chronic disease (%) | 11 | 16 | |
| Confirmed case of COVID-19 (%) | 23 | 22 | |
| Was hospitalized/complications from COVID-19 (n) | 2 | 3 | |
| Current use of food supplements (%) | 85 | 25 | |
| METs LIGHT [median (25–75%)] | Before the pandemic | 808.5 (321.8–2400,8) | 693.0 (198–1980) |
| METs MODERATE [median (25–75%)] | 2160** (720–5760) | 840** (0–2340) | |
| METs VIGOROUS [median (25–75%)] | 2400** (480–6660) | 320** (0–2200) | |
| METs LIGHT [median (25–75%)] | During the pandemic | 792 (288,8–1980) | 660 (99–1782) |
| METs MODERATE [median (25–75%)] | 2160** (690–4800) | 960** (0–2560) | |
| METs VIGOROUS [median (25–75%)] | 2280** (270–7680) | 480** (0–4320) | |
| COVID-19 fear scale [median (25–75%)] | Physiological symptoms | 4* (3–6) | 5* (3–6) |
| Emotional reactions | 11** (8–14) | 13** (10–15) | |
| Total score | 15** (13–19) | 18** (14–21) |
SD, standard deviation; METs, metabolic equivalent task minutes per week.
† p<0.001, Chi-square test
* p<0.05, Mann-Whitney test
** p<0.001, Mann-Whitney test