Table 4.

Cooking preparation practice, changes in eating behavior and life styles by the level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet, based on the Mediterranean diet adherence screener (MEDAS) of Croatian respondents during the COVID-19 confinement.

	MEDAS groups								P-valuea
	Low		Medium		High		All
	NL = 1,315	%	NM = 2,806	%	NH = 160	%	N = 4,281	%
Difficult to find certain types of food									0.053
No	1,084	82.4	2,215	78.9	122	76.3	3,421	79.9
Yes	231	17.6	591	21.1	38	23.8	860	20.1
Type of cooking									<0.001
Fried	132	10.0	108	3.8	3	1.9	243	5.7
Griddle	26	2.0	31	1.1	3	1.9	60	1.4
Microwave	7	0.5	5	0.2	0	0.0	12	0.3
Oven	242	18.4	354	12.6	18	11.3	614	14.3
Stew	908	69.0	2,308	82.3	136	85.0	3,352	78.3
Cooking more often									<0.001
As usual	639	48.6	1,172	41.8	72	45.0	1,883	44.0
Less	35	2.7	61	2.2	0	0.0	96	2.2
More	641	48.7	1,573	56.1	88	55.0	2,302	53.8
Fried foods consumed									<0.001
As usual	937	71.3	1,913	68.2	116	72.5	2,966	69.3
Lower	248	18.9	739	26.3	44	27.5	1,031	24.1
Higher	130	9.9	154	5.5	0	0.0	284	6.6
Frequency of fried food consumed (times/week)									<0.001
1–3	836	63.6	1,380	49.2	58	36.3	2,274	53.1
4–6	87	6.6	80	2.9	2	1.3	169	3.9
>7	5	0.4	8	0.3	0	0.0	13	0.2
<1	341	25.9	1,138	40.6	79	49.4	1,558	36.4
Never	46	3.5	200	7.1	21	13.1	267	6.2
Type of oil used for frying									<0.001
Olive oil	134	10.2	764	27.2	80	50.0	978	22.8
Other	166	12.6	384	13.7	19	11.9	569	13.3
Sunflower oil	1,015	77.2	1,658	59.1	61	38.1	2,734	63.9
Frequency of snacking									0.017
As usual	748	56.9	1,504	53.6	84	52.5	2,336	54.5
Lower	148	11.3	316	11.3	29	18.1	493	11.5
Higher	419	31.9	986	35.1	47	29.4	1,452	33.9
Frequency of fast food consumed									0.001
As usual	575	43.7	1,201	42.8	85	53.1	1,861	43.5
Lower	694	52.8	1,553	55.3	72	45.0	2,319	54.2
Higher	46	3.5	52	1.9	3	1.9	101	2.4
Ate more									0.066
No	736	56.0	1,593	56.8	105	65.6	2,434	56.9
Yes	579	44.0	1,213	43.2	55	34.4	1,847	43.1
Modification of physical activity									<0.001
No physical activity	142	10.8	157	5.6	5	3.1	304	7.1
It has decreased	483	36.7	1,047	37.3	51	31.9	1,581	36.9
It has increased	329	25.0	840	29.9	61	38.1	1,230	28.7
It remains as usual	361	27.5	762	27.2	43	26.9	1,166	27.2
Weight gain									0.013
I do not know	308	23.4	616	22.0	23	14.4	947	22.1
No	716	54.4	1,643	58.6	104	65.0	2,463	57.5
Yes	291	22.1	547	19.5	33	20.6	871	20.3
Meals consumed (number/day)b									<0.001
1	572	43.5	1,153	41.1	67	41.9	1,792	41.9
2	298	22.7	596	21.2	13	8.1	907	21.2
3	209	15.9	422	15.0	30	18.8	661	15.4
None	236	17.9	635	22.6	50	31.3	921	21.5

^aDifferences between the three Mediterranean diet adherence groups were evaluated by the Chi-squared test.

^bReferred as the usual number of meals out of home before the confinement.