Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on University Students' Physical Activity Levels: An Early Systematic Review

Abstract

Purpose: This systematic review aimed to analyze the impact that the COVID-19 lockdown had on the amount of physical activity performed by university students.Materials and Methods: A systematic electronic search for studies providing information regarding physical activity levels pre and during COVID-19 pandemic in university students was performed up to 20th October 2020 in the databases Cochrane Library, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science. The risk of bias of external validity quality of included studies was assessed by means of those the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The quality of the evidence for main outcomes was graded using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.Results and Conclusions: A total of 10 studies were selected. Physical activity levels were assessed by means of questionnaires (10 studies) and accelerometer (1 study). Risk of bias was regarded as low and high in six and four investigations, respectively. The quality of evidence was downgraded to low. A significant reduction of physical activity levels were observed in 9 studies. Compared to pre-lockdown values, five studies showed a reduction of light/mild physical activity (walking) between 32.5 and 365.5%, while seven studies revealed a reduction of high/vigorous physical activity between 2.9 and 52.8%. Walking, moderate, vigorous, and total physical activity levels have been reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic confinements in university students of different countries. Despite of the reductions, those who met the current minimum PA recommendations before the lockdown generally met the recommendations also during the confinements.

Influence of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity in children: A scoping review of the literature

“…Most of the countries extracted in this review are located in Europe and the Americas, where the number of infected people is considerable, and China, where the disease was first discovered and spread. Similar to the review of university students, 11 most studies were conducted in high- or upper-middle-income countries. As developing countries have limited medical resources and are facing vaccination delays, 35 , 36 a survey of the pandemic's impact on children is urgently needed even though the infection rate in such countries appears to be low.…”

“…López-Valenciano et al. 11 reviewed studies examining the PA of university students during the pandemic and found that nine out of ten reported a significant decrease in PA. They also noted that students who were sufficiently active before the pandemic remained sufficiently active during the confinements, despite reductions in their overall PA levels.…”

Social Isolation During COVID-19 Pandemic. Perceived Stress and Containment Measures Compliance Among Polish and Italian Residents

“…Increased stress with fear of contagion may prevent people from leaving home. On the other hand, imposed restrictions, closures of workplaces, recreation grounds, and forced social isolation are known to increase stress levels, for instance, as a result of deprivation of physical closeness (Stueck, 2021) or by limiting physical activity (López-Valenciano et al, 2021;Ruiz et al, 2021). With possible varying personality traits between residents of both countries (McCrae et al, 2005;Schmitt et al, 2007) and, consequently, different attitudes toward pandemic and lockdown policies (Schaller and Murray, 2008;Barceló, 2017), this may be one of the reasons behind perceived stress-level differences between the two discussed countries, although the actually imposed restrictions were similar in Poland and Italy at that time (Supplementary Tables 1, 2).…”

Traditional Chinese Medicine Body Constitutions and Psychological Determinants of Depression among University Students in Malaysia: A Pilot Study

“…Moreover, physical inactivity could be one of the risk factors for BSC and QDC, as a lack of movement may affect our blood circulation. A recent systematic review found a significant reduction in physical activity levels among university students because of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 97 ]. The pandemic outbreak and the resulting lockdowns may have impacted university students’ ability to be physically active.…”