Correlates of Children’s Physical Activity During the Covid-19 Confinement in Portugal

Abstract

Objectives: Aiming to understand the role of household variables on the percentage of physical activity (%PA) during the COVID-19 confinement, an anonymous online survey was launched to be completed by Portuguese families with children. Study Design: A Cross-sectional study design using an anonymous online survey that was launched to assess how Portuguese families with children under 13 years of age adjusted their daily routines to this situation. Methods: Separate ANOVAs were performed to investigate how factors, such as the number of children, age, sex, the housing characteristics, and the adults’ job situation, can affect the percentage of time for physical activity (%PA). Results: Findings, based on data from 2159 children, indicate that: I) Boys and girls did not differ in the %PA on any of the age groups; II) Children with an outdoor space and who had other children in the household were significantly more active (p<.001); III) Children from families with all adults working from home showed lower levels of %PA; IV) Being younger, having a big outdoor space, having other children in the household, and having at least one adult free from working from home, were significant positive predictors of children’s %PA, explaining 21% of the overall variance. Conclusion: Time allocated for PA during this period is reduced compared to what is usually reported on normal days. It is necessary to find strategies to increase children's PA, especially in families where both parents are working and have no outdoor space.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Related Lockdown Measures on Lifestyle Behaviors and Well-Being in Children and Adolescents with Severe Obesity

“…When zooming in on our study population during lockdown, children who managed to adhere to PA guidelines during lockdown were significantly younger (9.2 vs. 13.2 years) and more often adhered to PA guidelines prepandemic. In line with recent findings, encouragement from parents or peers seemed important [2,4,5,32]. Moreover, in half of our population, mean time spent on PA decreased dramatically to ≤2 h/week, which was often attributed to COVID-19-related anxiety, as we ourselves as well as a recent US study reported recently [15,33].…”

Children’s screen and problematic media use in the United States before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Post‐onset, parents tended to attribute this rise in SMU to either the pandemic or a change in their child's learning situation (see Figure 1 and Supporting Information D theme Factors influencing screen media ). While the quantitative results did not specifically take school‐related media use into account, these qualitative findings clearly suggest parents were also seeing an inherent increase in screen time due to distance learning, as seen in other studies (Lau & Lee, 2021; Pombo et al, 2020).…”

“…Our first aim was to describe how children were using screen media differently pre‐pandemic versus post‐onset and parent perceptions of their child's media use. This was a confirmatory aim based on international observations of changing screen media habits in children and adolescents (Dutta et al, 2020; Eyimaya & Irmark, 2021; Lau & Lee, 2021; Pombo et al, 2020). We hypothesized that, in our qualitative data, parents would express more concern about their child's media use post‐onset and there would be a shift in how they were talking about their child's media use.…”

“…Among adolescents in India, an increase in screen exposure was associated with disruptions in sleep behavior and more sedentary time (Dutta et al, 2020). In Portugal, parents retrospectively reported not only an increase in screen time and family activities but also a decrease in physical activity (Pombo et al, 2020). Parents in Turkey reported that they instituted ground rules related to screen time by May 2020 and had observed an increase in screen time in their children (Eyimaya & Irmark, 2021).…”

Physical Activity Time and Intensity in Physical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Indeed, studies have revealed a weekly decrease of 2.3 hours in children’s PA in recent years, and during the lockdown, time spent in PA was decreased to 1.29 hours per week (Pietrobelli et al, 2020). During the first lockdown period in March-April 2020, Portuguese children under the age of 12 were reported to have spent 80% of their time confined to sedentary activity (Pombo et al, 2020), with most of that time in front of a computer screen, due to online classes.…”