Abstract
Background: A healthy diet can ensure a robust immune system that can resist any onslaught by viruses and bacteria. Aim: To assess the nutritional knowledge and consumption patterns of immunity boosting foods of adults before & after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown periods and the effect of the lockdown on daily food intake among respondents in selected towns in Osun state. Methods: Cross sectional data was collected from six largest local governments areas purposively selected from the three senatorial districts of Osun State (n = 1000) using a well-structured, self-administered questionnaire and the data collected was analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and Pearson's correlation test The study assessed the food intakes of adults using a qualitative food frequency questionnaire. Results: The results indicated that the majority (89.8%) of the respondents had high knowledge of the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily food intake was affected by COVID-19 lockdown, consumption of healthy food among the respondents was high during lockdown as 77% strongly agreed that vitamins and minerals supplement can be considered healthy and immunity boosting, while there was a reduction in the consumption of healthy foods after the lockdown periods. The test of hypothesis showed that the occurrence of pandemic and nutritional knowledge had a significant relationship with the consumption of healthy foods. Conclusion: This study extends and confirms previous research on high nutritional knowledge of immunity-boosting foods in relation to COVID-19 among the respondents and a general reduction in the consumption of healthy foods after the COVID -19 lockdown periods.