How did the pandemic affect nutrition status? What is going on in Arkadelphia community? Let's find out in 60 days... How can it be that bad?
Over the summer, I was granted the opportunity to do a research under my dietetics professor, Dr. B. Two of my friends did it with me and we all had a hard-working summer. Over the course of 2 months, we had 3 projects to finish, 3 posters to be created, 2 research briefs to write. These are the topics we researched on:
1. How did the the COVID-19 pandemic affected the Ouachita community? The pandemic caused drastic changes to many aspects of each individuals lifestyle in the Ouachita community. We developed a questionnaire to evaluate the changes in lifestyle factors such as food consumption, diet-related behaviors, and physical activity that have the potential to lead to weight change. Based on the survey reports, bidirectional results were observed; however, weight gain and obesity were highly prevalent during the lockdown measures.
2. We also looked at childhood obesity prevalence. Obesity during childhood is a health risk for early and future chronic diseases. With the increasing rate of childhood obesity and the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a quasi-systematic review assessing the factors of childhood obesity during the pandemic. We identified an increase in childhood obesity during the pandemic due to school closures that negatively altered lifestyle changes in children's diet, physical activity, and mental health.
3. Our last project was more hand-on, where we applied Nutrition Focused Physical Exam (NFPE) to the senior adults in Arkadelphia. Malnutrition affects one-third of the elderly population but is often unrecognized and left untreated. It can be caused by many factors such as sarcopenia, decreased appetite, abnormal body mass index, food insecurity, and immobility. We assessed the seniors in the Arkadelphia community for indicators of malnutrition using the NFPE, hand grip strength test, and nutrient analysis utilizing a 24-hour dietary recall.
For each of the research topic, we crafted a research poster, which we presented at the end of the summer at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU). We will also present these posters in 2022 in different avenues, such as OBU Scholar's Day, Posters on the Hill, and Arkansas Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Virtual Meeting.
We also wrote research briefs for the first and last project. Man, oh man, writing papers with three different voices and minds were difficult. But we managed, we finished within the deadline, we became better writers. Our professor then sent the research briefs to a journal publisher to be evaluated, hoping for them to be published.
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