Vietnamese living habits, wellbeing and working adaptation in face of COVID-19's strictest lockdown

Purpose - This study explores the impacts of COVID-19's strictest lockdown on Vietnamese citizens' living habits, wellbeing and work-from-home effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach - The study uses a survey questionnaire to gather relevant data from Vietnamese adults during the most recent, strictest lockdown in their cities/provinces since July 2021. The study employs ordinal regression and mediation models to examine the effects of the strict lockdown difficulties on the changes in living habits, wellbeing and work effectiveness of Vietnamese respondents. Findings - The empirical result demonstrates that the strictest lockdown adversely affected the living habits of Vietnamese citizens, thus impacting people's wellbeing. Work-from-home lockdown difficulties led to unexpected health issues that bring produce lower working effectiveness. Originality/value - This is the first study to investigate the changes in citizens' living habits, health and working conditions in adherence to Vietnam's strictest COVID-19 lockdown. This is also the first study to examine the impacts of lockdown difficulties on human wellbeing with the mediating effect of changes in living habits, and the influence of work-from-home lockdown difficulties on work effectiveness, with the mediating effect of lower wellbeing based on the literature. Our study suggests solutions to improve Vietnamese people's health and working productivity during and after a strict lockdown.