| Abstract [eng] |
Reasoning: The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world suddenly and unexpectedly, bringing many changes that drastically changed people's lives. Quarantines increased the isolation of people, many businesses completely collapsed or were temporarily closed, because of that many were left without a source of income, there was a constant feeling of fear, anxiety and stress due to an unknown disease, all these changes caused by the pandemic strongly affected people's mental health. During difficult trials, people often look for solutions in alcohol or smoking. Therefore, it is important to find out how the pandemic affects people's harmful habits, so that people can be given the right help in the future. Work objective: To identify changes in harmful habits among different socioeconomic groups of the Lithuanian population, which were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tasks: 1) Assess the prevalence of harmful habits among respondents; 2) To assess changes in smoking habits that occurred during the quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic; 3) To assess the changes in alcohol consumption habits that occurred during the quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods of the research: An anonymous questionnaire was used to conduct the research, which was shared online. 467 respondents participated in the survey. Respondents' demographic data, prevalence of alcohol consumption and smoking, habits, changes caused by quarantine were evaluated. Microsoft Office Excel 2021 program was used for data structuring, R Commander for statistical analysis. Chi-square (χ 2) was calculated for the analysis of qualitative data, and the difference in data was considered statistically significant when p ≤ 0.05. Results: The biggest change in the proportion of smokers was recorded among students (increased by 17%) and among pensioners (decrease by 35%). Cigarettes were the most smoked product both before and during the quarantine. The number of times of alcohol consumption per week decreased among the respondents, most of them drank only 1-2 times per week, but during the quarantine, the consumption of SAU during one session increased, the largest increase was recorded in the 18-30 age group, in which 16% were drinking 5-7 SAU per session . Expenditures for smokers had a downward trend, while for alcohol there was almost no change. Also there was an 16 percent increse of those who found harmful habits helpful in combating stress and anxiety. Conclusions: The quarantine introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic affected both smoking and alcohol consumption habits. A uniform trend was not identified, as different changes were seen in different socioeconomic groups. During pandemics, it is important to pay special attention to the psychological health of the population, as it is closely related to harmful habits and addictions. |
