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The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about drastic measures that have significantly altered the norms of daily living. These measures have affected human behaviors in disparate ways. This study seeks to understand the impact of the pandemic on physical activity and dietary behavior among adults living in Kuwait. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between 18 June and 15 July 2020, using a questionnaire disseminated through social media, including WhatsApp and Facebook. The target population was individuals aged 21 years or older living in the State of Kuwait. The study included 679 respondents; 57.9% were females, and 67.7% were Kuwaiti nationals. Both genders reported an increased consumption of vegetables, fruits, and carbohydrates, and a decreased consumption of fish and sugary drinks. Compared to males, females reported eating more during the outbreak than their pre-pandemic eating behaviors (32.3% vs. 35.9%, p< 0.05). Approximately one-third of respondents (33.1%) reported performing less than 30 min of physical activity or exercise in a week, and 36.4% of respondents rated their quality of sleep as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. The rate of smoking cigarettes among males was significantly higher than in females (40.6% vs. 5.3%, p< 0.001). Physical activity was positively correlated with vegetable consumption and quality of sleep. Quality of sleep was negatively correlated with the consumption of sweets and snacks, just as the consumption of vegetables was negatively correlated with the consumption of sugary drinks. The overall negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kuwait necessitates the development of health promotion interventions to support positive physical activity and dietary behaviors using alternative coping strategies among the residents of Kuwait.
Ahmad Salman; Kennedy Sigodo; Fatima Al-Ghadban; Badreya Al-Lahou; Maha Alnashmi; Souhail Hermassi; Sungsoo Chun. Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on Physical Activity and Dietary Behaviors in Kuwait: A Cross-Sectional Study. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2252 .
AMA StyleAhmad Salman, Kennedy Sigodo, Fatima Al-Ghadban, Badreya Al-Lahou, Maha Alnashmi, Souhail Hermassi, Sungsoo Chun. Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on Physical Activity and Dietary Behaviors in Kuwait: A Cross-Sectional Study. Nutrients. 2021; 13 (7):2252.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAhmad Salman; Kennedy Sigodo; Fatima Al-Ghadban; Badreya Al-Lahou; Maha Alnashmi; Souhail Hermassi; Sungsoo Chun. 2021. "Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on Physical Activity and Dietary Behaviors in Kuwait: A Cross-Sectional Study." Nutrients 13, no. 7: 2252.
The research and development (R&D) expenditure in Kuwait is insufficient to lead to innovation and a knowledge economy. Investment in R&D has been shown to sustain elevated economic performance. The objective of this study is to explore the association between three competing dimensions of R&D indicators that lead to sustainable economic performance within any given country, namely, R&D expenditure, the number of researchers, and the number of patent rights, using time-series data collected over a 20-year period (1996–2016) by the World Bank Group. R&D indicators were compared between high- and middle-income countries including models from Asian (South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia) and European (Finland and Ireland) countries as well as the State of Kuwait. Moreover, a case study describing R&D investments in Kuwait is presented. Overall, the results reveal higher R&D spending, number of researchers, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for the Asian and European models. Current R&D expenditure in Kuwait is estimated at 0.08% of GDP (2016), which is significantly lower than the mean of the middle-income countries (1.58%). Furthermore, the number of researchers (per million) in Kuwait (386) is less than half of the mean number of researchers in middle-income countries (775) (2015). Low R&D investments in the State of Kuwait has gradually led to a decreased GDP per capita. Regression analysis shows that GDP per capita can be predicted solely based on the number of researchers (beta = 0.780, R2 = 0.608). The number of researchers is the most crucial variable to predict GDP per capita, and the R&D expenditure is a good indicator of the number of researchers. These findings offer invaluable insight into the sustainable development goals (SDG 9). To our knowledge, this paper presents the first application of the effect of R&D on sustainable economic performance with reference to the SDG target 9.5 “Research & Development”. Thus, in order to enhance scientific research (both academic, professional, and industrial), countries need to increase the number of researchers, and these actions are necessary to introduce sustainable growth to GDP.
Ahmad Salman; Ali Al-Hemoud; Saja Fakhraldeen; Maha Al-Nashmi; Suad AlFadhli; Sungsoo Chun. Research and Development as a Moderating Variable for Sustainable Economic Performance: The Asian, European, and Kuwaiti Models. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7525 .
AMA StyleAhmad Salman, Ali Al-Hemoud, Saja Fakhraldeen, Maha Al-Nashmi, Suad AlFadhli, Sungsoo Chun. Research and Development as a Moderating Variable for Sustainable Economic Performance: The Asian, European, and Kuwaiti Models. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (18):7525.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAhmad Salman; Ali Al-Hemoud; Saja Fakhraldeen; Maha Al-Nashmi; Suad AlFadhli; Sungsoo Chun. 2020. "Research and Development as a Moderating Variable for Sustainable Economic Performance: The Asian, European, and Kuwaiti Models." Sustainability 12, no. 18: 7525.