Exploring the Influence of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown and School Closure on ‎Children's Dietary Patterns: A Multinational Study Across Middle Eastern Arab Nations

This study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Middle Eastern Arab ‎children’s eating habits, body weight, lifestyle, physical activity, sleeping hours, use of smart ‎electronic devices, and mental health. This exploratory study was conducted using a self-‎administered questionnaire and distributed to parents of children aged 4–12 years. Multinomial ‎logistic regression was performed to model the relationship between the predictors ‎and children’s ‎body weight changes during the pandemic. ‎A total of 891 responses were included from Bahrain, ‎Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Oman. The mean of the ‎children’s weight gained during the pandemic was 4.19 ± 3.08 Kg. A sedentary lifestyle has ‎significantly increased from 4% of children (pre-pandemic) to 17.9% during the pandemic (p < ‎‎0.001). Children’s sleeping hours have also significantly increased (> 9 hours/day) from 26.2% to ‎‎38.2%, respectively (p < 0.01). Emotional eating has increased from 72% to 91.5%, respectively. ‎Around 84% of parents reported increased use of smart electronic devices by children (‎5.48 ± ‎‎2.87 hours). A significant proportion of the children became more nagging (251, 44.2%), stressed ‎‎(192, 33.8%), lonely (153, 26.9%), and anxious (125, 22.5%). Increased body weight was more ‎associated with girls, children residing in Jordan and Bahrain, children with working mothers, ‎children of high-income or overweight parents, and children who were already overweight. The ‎findings demonstrate that the COVID-19 lockdown resulted in reduced physical activity, ‎increased food consumption, heightened use of smart electronic devices, and subsequently, ‎increased body weight among children. It is imperative for health authorities to implement ‎interventions, such as proper children's health education, to address these issues in the event of ‎future lockdowns.‎