Effects of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Elementary School Children (original) (raw)
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Student's Compliance in Doing Physical Activities During COVID-19 Pandemic
Proceedings of the 5th International Seminar of Public Health and Education, ISPHE 2020, 22 July 2020, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang, Indonesia, 2020
The social & physical distancing policies implemented by the government to prevent transmission of COVID-19 force school-age children to carry out various activities at home. Quarantine demands and online models of learning had an impact on children's tendency to static patterns through sitting, playing gadgets, eating, and sleeping. They also neglecting important physical activities that must be carried out to maintain stamina, growth, and health status, such as light exercise and sunbathe in the morning. The health status of students was key to their productivity in the future. The purpose of the study was to analyze the compliance of students from doing physical activity during COVID-19 pandemic and various influencing factors. This is a quantitative study with a cross-sectional approach to 167 students who became the sample of the study. Data collected online with google-form in early May 2020. Data be analyzed with the rank-spearman test. As many as 61.7% of students have good levels of compliance in doing physical activities. Variables of family support, communication interactions, perceived comfort and physical health status were shown to be positively correlated with adherence in doing physical activities (p <0.05). Support and involvement of family members to jointly carry out physical activities on a regular basis could be done through intensive communication with parents to always invite and remind them. Health workers could monitor and evaluate it by involving the role of school teachers.
Medycyna Pracy
Background: Insufficient physical activity levels (PAL) during adolescence is a major public health concern, which is even more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic due to restricting movement opportunities. This study aimed to identify PAL changes and examine the age-specific determinants of PAL in younger and older adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown. Material and Methods: This study included 859 high-school students from Bosnia and Herzegovina stratified into 2 age groups: younger (N = 420, 14-16 years of age), and older adolescents (N = 439, 16-18 years of age). Participants were tested over 2 testing waves: before the COVID-19 lockdown (January 2020) and during the COVID-19 lockdown (April 2020). Variables included PAL assessed by the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents, sports factors, and parental factors. Results: The PAL significantly declined as a result of lockdown measures in the total sample (from 2.76±0.79 to 2.50±0.82). Larger absolute and relative decline of PAL was evidenced in younger adolescents. Sport participation positively influenced PAL before lockdown, with no significant influence during the lockdown. Older adolescents whose mothers were better educated were less likely to be in high risk group with regard to a large decline of PAL as a result of COVID lockdown (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.21-0.84). Conclusions: Results of the study suggest that parental education influences health-related behaviors and that parental education is a protective factor against a decrease in PAL during the COVID-19 pandemic. Main educational agents (i.e., school and parents) should pay more attention to provide children and adolescents adequate information and develop their health literacy, which will hopefully positively impact children's PAL even in challenging situations similar to COVID-19 lockdown.
Since childhood physical education, sports and power activities figure in every person's life. As a child develops, parents send him or her to sports sections of different orientation: gymnastics, soccer, athletics, boxing, etc. The formation of such a habit as a hobby physical activity is carried out not only to occupy their free time, but mainly to ensure normal physiological development, improve the functional processes of the growing organism, as well as strengthen the immune system and the overall health of the child. With age, children may change their hobbies, change sports or engage in art and creativity, but moderate loads still remain in their lives, such as school physical education classes or student physical education classes, which continue for almost the entire period of study: from 1 to 9 (11) grade and 1 to 3 (5) year, respectively. This is due to the fact that sport and human health are in close relationship, as physical activity provides good body condition, improves mental and psychological development, strengthens immunity, has a general preventive effect on the body. That is why regular exercise is so important. The paper considers the problems of forming a healthy lifestyle in children and provides recommendations for overcoming them, also considered the statistics of public health to emphasize the relevance of the topic, also this article focuses on the pandemic (COVID-19), its impact on physical activity, pupils, students, employees and other citizens. The reasons that led to a decrease in motor activity of citizens, as well as some recommendations to avoid the worst consequences.
https://www.ijhsr.org/IJHSR\_Vol.11\_Issue.11\_Nov2021/IJHSR-Abstract.04.html, 2021
The aim of the study is to assess if there are any changes in the play, sedentary and mood behaviours of children aged between 10-16 years of age before and during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Background: Covid-19 pandemic led to closures of schools and play grounds, social distancing, quarantining, etc., impacting the lifestyle activities of children and adolescents across the entire day. This led to an increase in the sedentary behaviours and decreased physical activity in children having detrimental effects on cardiometabolic/psychosocial health. In this study we aim to see the impact on lifestyle, mood, movement and screen time of children aged 10-16 years old before and during the Covid-19 global pandemic using online self-administered survey. Methodology: 100 online responses were collected from children as per inclusion criteria. Demographic data and consent was taken. The survey was divided into 2 parts 1) Lifestyle and Study behaviours of the child-having 6 questions based on health, study, sleep cycle and motivation of the child, etc. 2) Movement and Screen timing of the child-which included the hours and type of physical activity, screen time and school's participation which was responded by the parents/older children based on before and during the Covid-19 period. The 100 responses were statistically calculated. Result: The study concludes that sedentary behaviours due to reduced physical activity and increased screen time including all gadgets have impacted the mood, diet, sleep, study of the child. This highlights the need for strategies to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary time in children during the current and potential future pandemics to prevent long-term health risks.
Education Sciences
The aim of this study was to identify the structure of weekly physical activity (PA) of adolescents with varying degrees of participation in school PA and motivation for PA before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. PA was assessed using the IPAQ-long form and motivation by using the MPAM-R questionnaire. Participants (N = 1257) were divided into groups involved and not involved in school PA. During the pandemic, the greatest decrease was observed in vigorous and moderate PA in boys (H = 98.52, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.179) and girls (H = 56.86, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.075) involved in school PA and in boys involved and not involved in school PA and in transportation PA. Physical education (PE) teachers should focus on promoting vigorous PA and home PA for boys and girls in the post-pandemic period. Student participation in school PA and an increase in overall PA should be supported through distance PE, which should be a mandatory part of PE programs and comprehensive school PA programs.
Sport Sciences for Health, 2022
Background Children have a higher chance of decreasing health-related physical fitness during periods of school lockdown due to pandemic situations such as with COVID-19 disease. Aims To establish the changes in children's self-perceived physical fitness (SPPF) during pandemic COVID-19 social distancing in a school lockdown and to describe the individual prevalence of changes in SPPF according to sex. Methods It is an intervention study with a convenient sample, 67 children (6-13 years old; 50.7% girls). An intervention occurred according to the Brazilian Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) and the State Education Secretary orientations for remote Physical Education classes. SPPF was evaluated through a questionnaire (QAPA). Generalized estimative equations (GEE) and the prevalence of changes in individual score delta (Δ) from baseline to follow-up determined the effects. Results Positive individual changes in SPPF were observed for 21.2% of girls and 26.4% of boys. Older children presented fewer SPPF total points. There was no interaction between the evaluation period, sex, and age. However, higher baseline SPPF values presented a negative association with the individual SPPF variation (β = − 2.52%; CI 95% − 3.97 to − 1.07; p = 0.001). Conclusion A remote Physical Education intervention effectively maintained or even increased individual results of children's SPPF. Thereby, this study suggests that this kind of initiative should be retained for the duration of social distancing and pandemic conditions to help children maintain an active lifestyle and, consequently, achieve health benefits. Improving intervention effectiveness by focusing on girls seems to be a challenge in this matter.
Changes in the Level and Type of Students’ Physical Activity Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Proceeding book Vol.2
The current study aims to reveal the changes in the levels of physical activity before and during COVID-19 pandemic among students in 8th to 12th grade. A total of 160 Bulgarian students took part in the study (98 girls – 60%; 62 boys – 40%), with an average age of 16 years. The following methods were used to achieve the set goals: scientific literature review, designing a questionnaire and statistical data analysis with the SPSS software. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for the descriptive statistics, frequencies and revealing significant correlations and differences according to different factors of the subjects in the study. A structured questionnaire was created, which was distributed through the social networks. The obtained results allowed for revealing the main type of physical activity performed before and during the pandemic among the students. The most common physical activity before the pandemic period is the participation in the Physical Education an...
Physical Activity of Children and Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Scoping Review
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
To counteract the COVIC-19 pandemic, many governments have introduced social distancing measures. While these restrictions helped contain the virus, it had adverse effects on individuals’ mental and physical health—especially children. The aim of the present study is to review the evidence on the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on children’s physical activity and their determinants. A scoping review was conducted in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, SportDiscus, and BISp-Surf. Inclusion criteria were empirical and peer-reviewed studies, youth samples, investigation of COVID-19 restrictions, and investigating changes and/or determinants of physical activity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Risk of bias was assessed using the checklist by Downs and Black. The search resulted in 1672 studies, of which 84 studies were included in the analysis. The results highlighted a decrease in physical activity during the pandemic, ranging between −10.8 min/day and −91 min/day. If an in...
JMIR Formative Research
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the closure of schools and may have inadvertently resulted in decreased physical activity for youth. Emerging evidence suggests that school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic could have hastened the inactivity of youth, possibly due to a lack of structure outside of school and increased access to sedentary activities. Objective The purpose of this study was to assess changes in physical activity from pre–school closure (before the pandemic) to post–school closure (during the pandemic) among youth in spring 2020. Methods This study used a natural experimental design; youth were enrolled in a physical activity study prior to the lockdown, which was enforced due to the pandemic. The number of device-assessed steps per day and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity minutes per week were measured by using a Garmin Vivofit 4 (Garmin Ltd) accelerometer over 8 weeks. Mixed effects models were used to compare physical activity variables, wh...
Sedentary Behavior Among School-aged Students During Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study
Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Arts and Humanities 2021 (IJCAH 2021), 2022
It is well established that sedentary behavior is associated with obesity, quality of life, all-cause, and cardiovascular death. Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, sedentary behavior is increasing. This study aims to describe sedentary activity among school-aged children. Participants of this study were 67 students, 30 boys and 37 girls. Data collected in the present study from Adolescent Sedentary Activity Questionnaire (ASAQ) filled by the participants about their sedentary behavior. This cross-sectional study revealed that most sedentary behavior among children was playing smartphones or tablets in their spare time (8.59 ± 5.93) hours on weekdays, while on weekends, (3.95 ± 3.41) hours. There was no significant difference regarding characteristics (age, height, weight, and BMI) and sedentary behavior between males and females. Besides, a significant correlation was found in the study-based activities on the weekend with age and other sedentary activities on BMI. This prolonged sedentary behavior among children could be the leading cause of obesity, which later can develop into a chronic disease. It is imperative to limit sedentary behavior by involving their parents and developing programs to promote physical activity engagement.