A model of health-related quality of life during COVID-19 pandemic: the role of food customer loyalty and affordability

This research aims to test the simultaneous effects of the perceived threat of COVID-19, e-health literacy, e-health access barrier, loyalty toward healthy foods in general, loyalty toward functional foods, the affordability of healthy foods in general and the affordability of functional foods on health-related quality of life (HrQoL) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey with 400 respondents in Banten, Indonesia, was performed. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.

The results of the research showed that HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic was positively affected by e-health literacy and the affordability of healthy foods in general while negatively affected by the e-health access barrier, the perceived threat of COVID-19 and loyalty toward healthy foods in general. Furthermore, HrQoL was not influenced by loyalty toward and affordability of functional foods.

This research was conducted in Banten. Due to the operational limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research used a purposive sampling technique. Therefore, the next research should retest the model in different contexts and locations.

To improve HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens need to be educated on finding and utilizing credible online health information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments and health service providers should also strive to offer ease of access to credible online health information. Furthermore, the affordability of healthy foods, in general, should be managed well.

A few studies on HrQoL during COVID-19 pandemic were performed. However, there is a lack of paper that examines the role of food customer loyalty and affordability in a model of HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first that involved and tested the role of food customer loyalty and affordability in a model of HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic.