Cooking skills, nutrition knowledge and eating behaviours among Italian adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic: results from the online survey COALESCENT (Change amOng ItAlian adoLESCENTs).

Introduction: Recent studies suggest that home cooking and meal sharing play a key role in promoting healthy development in adolescents. Lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic affected lifestyle worldwide. This study aimed to investigate change in eating habits, including cooking skills, in a sample of Italian adolescents during the pandemic, compared to the previous period. Methods. An online survey was submitted to students attending high schools in a province of North Italy. According to changes in food consumption, we assigned an eating habit index (EHI) score ranging from -31 to 38, reflecting respectively a worsening or an improvement in diet quality, compared to the period before the pandemic. We divided respondents into three groups considering cooking ability and number of meals able to prepare: high, medium and low cooking skills. Results. We recruited 1686 participants, of whom 50% were female, aged 16 ± 1.5 y.o. The median EHI score was 3 (from -20 to 33). Overall, 58% declared to slightly improve their cooking skills, and 22% improved them a lot. EHI mean score was statistically higher among adolescents who highly improved their cooking ability during the pandemic compared to those reporting no or slightly improvement (5.2 vs. 3.1, p=0.0001). According to a multivariate logistic analysis, high cooking skills were associated with female gender (OR 1.40, p=0.007), an EHI score >9 (75° percentile value) (OR 1.42 p=0.01), better nutrition knowledge (OR 1.47 p=0.003) and lower ultra-processed foods consumption (OR 1.44 p=0.01). Conclusions. Overall, our results suggest that COVID-19 pandemic positively influenced cooking skills among adolescents. Good cooking abilities were associated with better nutrition knowledge and healthier eating habits, including a lower consumption of ultra-processed foods. Projects aimed to improve culinary skills in adolescents could be of value in promoting a healthier lifestyle.