Abstract

Background: Confinement to prevent contagion by COVID-19 has been shown to have a negative impact on different components of the population's health, food being one of the most notable. The objective of this work was to characterize the intake of certain foods according to sex, age, and educational and socioeconomic level during the COVID 19 pandemic in Chile.. Methods: cross-sectional study through an online survey. Each person answered a food intake questionnaire on the self-administered form, and questions about the type and duration of confinement and sociodemographic data. Results: 1722 people participated (82.5% female). When evaluating the% of compliance with the recommendations for each food, fruit and dairy, it is less than 10%, but being significantly higher in women, whereas the consumption of sugary drinks, caffeinated drinks and alcohol, the highest in men. When comparing by age, it was observed that in those over 55 years of age the majority of healthy foods were reduced, more unhealthy foods such as sugary drinks and junk food and when comparing by socioeconomic level, a lower consumption of healthy foods was observed in people of lower level Socioeconomic, on the contrary, the consumption of unhealthy foods was higher, except for alcohol, caffeinated beverages, and sugar. Conclusions: There is a high consumption of unhealthy foods during the pandemic, and there are differences in intake according to sex, age, and socioeconomic level.