COVID-19 confinement and health risk behaviours in Spain

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a world pandemic due to COVID-19. In response, most affected countries have implemented enacted measures involving compulsory confinement and restrictions on free movement, which likely influence citizen´s lifestyles. This study investigates the length of confinement with changes in health risk behaviors (HRBs). An online cross-sectional survey served to collect data about the Spanish adult population regarding health behaviors during the first three weeks of confinement. A large sample of participants (N=2741) (51.8% women; mean age 34.2 years [SD 13.0]) from all Spanish regions completed the survey. Binomial logistic regressions adjusted for socioeconomic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, civil status, education, and occupation), body mass index (BMI), previous HRBs and confinement context (i.e. solitude and exposure to COVID-19) were conducted to investigate associations between the number of weeks confined and a set of six HRBs (physical activity, alcohol consumption, fresh fruits, and vegetable consumption, smoking, screen exposure and sleep hours). When adjusted, we observed significantly lower odds of experiencing a higher number of HRBs than before confinement overall in a time-dependent fashion; OR 0.63; 95%CI: 0.49-0.81 for the second, and OR 0.47; 95%CI: 0.36-0.61 for the third week of confinement. These results were equally consistent in all age and gender subgroup analyses. The present study indicates that changes towards more number of HRBs than before the confinement, as well as each HRB prevalence, except screen exposure, decreased during the first three weeks of COVID-19 confinement, thus the Spanish adult population may adapt to the new situation context by gradually improving health behaviors.