The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food and Nutrition Security and Dietary Habits among Syrian Refugees in Camps: A General Review

Thana Y. ALjaraedah¹, Hamed R. Takruri² and Reema F. Tayyem³

¹Nutrition at Zarqa University Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, the University of Jordan, Jordan.

²Nutrition at The University of Jordan's Faculty of Agriculture's Department of Nutrition and Food Technology. Amman 11942 Jordan.

³Nutrition at Qatar University's College of Health Sciences' Human Nutrition Department. Doha Qatar

Corresponding Author E-mail: reema.tayyem@qu.edu.qa

With over one billion people experiencing nutritional shortages, food insecurity is expanding as a worldwide problem. There are presently 657,628 Syrian refugees registered in Jordan nine years after the crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic began. The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on pregnant women, nursing mothers, and most families with small children regarding food and nutrition security. It affected refugees worldwide. This review focuses on Syrian refugees' nutritional intake and the factors influencing their dietary habits, eating habits, and food insecurity. Due to system interdependencies, these impacts have cascaded across different components of the humanitarian aid provision system and led to risks of deterred personal growth and longer-term risks on the future leadership of the refugee community. The methodology followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. A structured search of two databases-PubMed and Google Scholar—was carried out, and articles were identified that focused upon the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on food and nutrition security and dietary habits among refugees in camps. From this study, we recommend devising an interdisciplinary framework for assessing the education, protection, food security and household needs of the refugee communities together rather than intervening discreetly, and using the food security and household component of the system as the ladder to achieve effective management of pandemic-borne risks for the community.

COVID-19 Pandemic; Dietary Behaviors; Food Security; Micronutrient; Nutrition Security; Syrian Refugees

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