COVID-19 Lockdown and the Behavior Change on Physical Exercise, Pain and Psychological Well-Being: An International Multicentric Study

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the following lockdown on physical exercise (PEx) practice, pain, and psychological well-being. Methods: A cross-sectional multicentric study was performed using a nonrandom convenience sampling from the general population (≥18 years-old) of 6 countries (Brazil, Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, and Spain) adopting social isolation (SI). The validated self-administered online survey (PEF-COVID19) was used. The tests T-test and Chi-square with Bonferroni correction were used for statistical analysis and a multivariate logistic regression model (p ˂ 0.05). Results: We included 3194 replies and ~80% of the respondents were in SI. Brazilian sample was highly influenced by the pandemic considering PEx practice and habits, pain, anxiety, and stress (p ˂ 0.05). Among the European countries, Italy presented the major changes. The model to predict the non-practice of PEx during SI showed that the variables countries, smoking, SI, and PEx level were significant predictors (p ˂ 0.001). Conclusion: The pandemic changed the PEx practice and habits, and the psychological well-being of populations in different manners. Countries, smoking, SI, and PEx level were predictors for the non-practice of PEx. Public health strategies are suggested to avoid sedentary lifestyles and quality of life decrease.

The Importance of Physical Activity to Augment Mood during COVID-19 Lockdown

“…The decrease in physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated in the current study was in line with our first hypothesis (H1) and agreed with previous investigations [1,4,9,32,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. The systematic review by Stockwell, et al, (2021), utilized 45 articles that assessed physical activity during COVID-19 in healthy adults, to conclude that all the studies reported total physical activity to decrease during COVID-19 [37].…”

“…Being in a lockdown environment (e.g., mandate to reduce time outside of home to slow down the spread of the infection) due to a lockdown may alter the activities in which individuals participate each day due to rapid changes in work and social environments, which may have a large impact on behavior and mood [8,9]. Research on the impact of COVID-19 lockdown and quarantine on mood found this resulted in negative psychological effects [10][11][12][13].…”

Precocious Puberty and Covid-19 Into Perspective: Potential Increased Frequency, Possible Causes, and a Potential Emergency to Be Addressed

“…These may be important contributing factors, and changes have been reported internationally with regard to physical exercise practice, habits, pain, anxiety and stress with greater changes being observed in Italy ( 25 ). Eating habits were carefully evaluated in a German study showing mainly an increase in food amount, and specifically in the assumption of bread and confectionary, and changes in alcohol consumption were also reported.…”

Assessment of knowledge of COVID-19 among health care workers-a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study in a tertiary care hospital of India

“…Over the course of several waves, the impact of COVID-19 and isolation have been studied in various studies. It would have been interesting to collect data on such psychological aspects of the disease, like Sonza et al in their multicentric study [22] .…”