Habits and Psychological Factors Associated With Changes in Physical Activity Due to COVID-19 Confinement

Abstract

The confinement that COVID-19 has brought about has had a negative influence on people’s psychological health. However, this impact is not widespread throughout the population, and men and women may be affected differently and it is not known what protective factors may exist. In this sense, physical activity has classically been shown to be a habit associated with psychological health. The study aimed to analyze the impact of confinement on psychological health (psychological well-being, coping, emotions, and perception of daily difficulties), taking into account gender, and perceived changes in physical activity. After the project was approved by the University’s Ethics Commission, the participants, after signing the informed consent, completed the online questionnaires during the days from 6 to 20 April, the time when, in Spain, confinement was in place and the highest peak of deaths and infections from COVID-19 occurred. A total of 457 Spanish participants (247 men and 210 women) were evaluated in psychological well-being, in its adaptation to Spanish, in coping, with the Spanish adaptation of the COPE Inventory, in daily habits and difficulties (ad hoc questionnaire) and the level of physical activity they had (sedentary, active, and federated players) was recorded. Besides, the perceived change in physical activity due to confinement was recorded. The results showed that perceived emotions, difficulties for certain routines, psychological well-being, and coping differed according to sex. On the other hand, depending on the change in physical activity habits, it was observed that participants who increased their physical activity responded differently in the perception of emotions, and difficulties for routines and in psychological well-being. Finally, differences were also observed in most variables between sedentary, active, and federated participants. Results are discussed highlighting the importance of physical activity as a moderating factor of the impact of confinement.

Body Mass Index, Practice of Physical Activity and Lifestyle of Students During COVID-19 Lockdown

“…41 Many kinds of researches indicated that college student's physical activities were reduced during the lockdown period. [42][43][44][45][46] In the present study, the mean and SD of sedentary time (minutes) used daily by the students were 448.7± 73.6 and 517.8 ± 83.03 before and during lockdown respectively, which was significant (p=0.0001). GPAQ score (MET-min/week) was 1116.5 ± 125.3 before lockdown and 1149.2 ± 120.08 during the lockdown, which was also significant (p=0.0001).…”

The Use of Online Training Tools in Competition Cyclists During COVID-19 Confinement in Spain

“…Therefore, these tools allow athletes to stay active, which could translate into continued healthy habits such as better sleep quality or a higher level of physical activity (Trabelsi et al, 2021). Research indicates that behavioral changes have occurred in the population during the pandemic lockdown, both in physical activity habits (Leon-Zarceño et al, 2021) and altered eating behaviors (Ammar et al, 2020b), highlighting the importance of safe physical activity in times of pandemic (Chtourou et al, 2020).…”

Risk-Aversion for Negative Health Outcomes May Promote Individual Compliance to Containment Measures in Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Social distancing, fear of contagion and job uncertainty became part of our lives. In such an unpredictable and stressful situation, personal resources needed to promote psychosocial adaptation and emotional balance may be lacking, and this in turn may affect routines and habits related to everyday life and work (Cellini et al, 2020;León-Zarceño et al, 2021). In particular, into the context of Covid-19 pandemic, the risk of falling ill is weighed against the risk of losing the job and, thus, possibly compromising the living standards (Godinic et al, 2020;Rutter et al, 2020).…”