Decrease in Mobility during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Association with Increase in Depression among Older Adults: A Longitudinal Remote Mobility Monitoring Using a Wearable Sensor

Abstract

Background: Social isolation during COVID-19 may negatively impact older adults’ wellbeing. To assess its impact, we measured changes in physical activity and sleep among community-dwelling older adults, from pre-to post-pandemic declaration. Method: Physical activity and sleep in older adults (n = 10, age = 77.3 ± 1.9 years, female = 40%) were remotely assessed within 3-month pre-to 6-month post-pandemic declaration using a pendant-wearable system. Depression was assessed pre-and post-pandemic declaration using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and was compared with 48 h continuous physical activity monitoring data before and during pandemic. Results: Compared to pre-pandemic, post-pandemic time spent in standing declined by 32.7% (Cohen’s d = 0.78, p < 0.01), walking by 52.2% (d = 1.1, p < 0.01), step-counts by 55.1% (d = 1.0, p = 0.016), and postural transitions by 44.6% (d = 0.82, p = 0.017) with increase in sitting duration by 20.5% (d = 0.5, p = 0.049). Depression symptoms increased by 150% (d = 0.8, p = 0.046). Interestingly, increase in depression was significantly correlated with unbroken-prolong sitting bout (ρ = 0.677, p = 0.032), cadence (ρ = −0.70, p = 0.024), and sleep duration (ρ = −0.72, p = 0.019). Conclusion: This is one of the early longitudinal studies highlighting adverse effect of the pandemic on objectively assessed physical activity and sleep in older adults. Our observations showed need for timely intervention to mitigate hard to reverse consequences of decreased physical activity such as depression.

“Wearables on vogue”: a scoping review on wearables on physical activity and sedentary behavior during COVID-19 pandemic

“…Heterogeneity in the study types was observed as follows: cross-sectional (n = 9; 53%), longitudinal (n = 4; 24%), retrospective (n = 1; 6%), narrative review (n = 1; 6%) and pilot non-randomized studies (n = 2; 12%). Similar heterogeneity was found in participants too in the included studies: pregnant women [27], elderly [24,26], office workers [21], diabetes [18] and children [25]. All the studies were from high-income countries.…”

“…Seven studies administered smartphone-based physical activity measurement through inbuilt accelerometers from which the captured data were transferred to the cloud server and visualized in smartphone applications [16-19, 21, 24, 31]. Majority of studies (n = 9; 53%) employed wrist bands and wristwatches of multiple technology firms (Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi) and wearable research-based accelerometers [20,23,25,26,[28][29][30]32]. A few studies (n = 4; 24%) reported the psychometrics of the wearables, and lowto-moderate validity was found [21,22,27].…”

Daily Physical Activity and Sleep Measured by Wearable Activity Trackers during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Lesson for Preventing Physical Inactivity during Future Pandemics

“…Mishra et al [23] investigated the impact of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic on wellbeing in older adults. There were a total of 10 adults who were aged ≥75 years or ≥65 years with a risk of falling.…”

Feasibility of a Remotely Delivered Strength and Balance Training Program for Older Adults with Cancer

“…The pandemic has led to a decrease in PA in older adults [ 56 , 57 ], as well as an emphasis on the importance of older adults with cancer minimizing outings and observing physical distancing [ 24 ]. While an increasing proportion of older adults are being vaccinated, COVID infections due to new variants are rising, and the pandemic may continue into the foreseeable future.…”