Food Behavior chosen among communitiesin preventing of COVID-19 infection in East Java

Abstract

Covid-19 prevention including food behavior must be promote to increase body immunity and decrease the spread of infection. The aim of this study was to describe the prevention behavior of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) among communities and to examine their food behaviorduring pandemic. We did analysis from secondary data. Data was derived from online survey with self-administered questionnaire did by Nutrition Laboratory. A 721 respondent aged 19-60 years old who lived in East Java provincewas included. Respondents characteristics, information resource and food behaviorregarding with covid-19 prevention were collected. The most of respondent was educated and worked in private sector with the mean age of 33 years old. We showed that washing hand both using soap and handsanitizer was the most prevention behavior which was done by 97% respondents followed by limiting outdoor activities (85%) and eat balanced diet (82%). Online health information was the most trustworthy resources regarding their prevention behavior which was chosen by 75% respondents, followed by health-care worker information (70%). Increasing fruits consumption was the food behavior change during pandemic, beside reducing buying food outside. Guava, banana and dried date was the three top vitamin A rich-fruits chosen by respondents.We concluded that increasing fruits consumption should be promoted as education among communities in East Java by online media as the education channel for communities