Impact of Virtual vs. In-Person School on Children Meeting the 24-h Movement Guidelines during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The pandemic mitigation strategy of closing schools, while necessary, may have unintentionally impacted children’s moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), sleep, and time spent watching screens. In some locations, schools used hybrid attendance models, with some days during the week requiring in-person and others virtual attendance. This scenario offers an opportunity to evaluate the impact of attending in-person school on meeting the 24-h movement guidelines. Children (N = 690, 50% girls, K–5th) wore wrist-placed accelerometers for 14 days during October/November 2020. Parents completed daily reports on child time spent on screens and time spent on screens for school. The schools’ schedule was learning for 2 days/week in-person and 3 days/week virtually. Using only weekdays (M–F), the 24-h movement behaviors were classified, and the probability of meeting all three was compared between in-person vs. virtual learning and across grades. Data for 4956 weekdays (avg. 7 d/child) were collected. In-person school was associated with a greater proportion (OR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.33–2.18) of days that children were meeting the 24-h movement guidelines compared to virtual school across all grades. Students were more likely to meet the screen time (OR = 9.14, 95% CI: 7.05–11.83) and MVPA (OR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.25–1.80) guidelines and less likely to meet the sleep (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.62–0.86) guidelines on the in-person compared to the virtual school days. Structured environments, such as school, have a protective effect on children’s movement behaviors, especially physical activity and screen time.

Device-Measured Change in Physical Activity in Primary School Children During the UK COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown: A Longitudinal Study

“…This suggests schools were unable to encourage physical activity by remote learning methods during stay-at-home lockdowns. This is in agreement with post-lockdown work which shows that when attending in-person schooling were more physically active compared to virtual-schooling at home 29 .…”

Examining associations between physical activity context and children meeting daily physical activity guidelines: the role of outdoor play, sports, and other organized activities

“…The average number of days per week fourth-grade children living in Texas met PA guidelines (3.6 ± 2.3 days) is difficult to compare with much of the previously published literature, as most studies simply report the proportion of children meeting PA guidelines. A previous study using accelerometer-derived data reported the proportion of days fourth-grade children met PA guidelines was 47.5% ( 43 ), which is similar to our study ([3.6/7]*100% = 51.4%). Comparing the proportion of children meeting PA guidelines proves difficult, as many studies derive this proportion by averaging PA across all measured days, which does not consider the “daily” aspect of the guideline language ( 5 – 8 ).…”

Toward an Integrated Consideration of 24 h Movement Guidelines and Nutritional Recommendations

“…The COVID-19 lockdown has led to a marked decline in adherence to 24 h Movement Guidelines among children and adolescents, even if major disparities were observed [53,54]. Children who attended school in person during the pandemic were more likely to meet the 24 h Movement Guidelines, especially screen time and MVPA, in contrast to sleep [55]. The decrease in movement behaviors observed during the COVID-19 lockdown has changed and implemented new habits in youth that were kept even at the end of the lockdown.…”