Longitudinal changes in physical activity during and after the first national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England

Abstract

BackgroundRecent studies have shown reduced physical activity at early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is a lack of investigation on longitudinal changes in physical activity beyond lockdowns and stay at home orders. Moreover, it is unclear if there is heterogeneity in physical activity growth trajectories. This study aimed to explore longitudinal patterns of physical activity and factors associated with them.MethodsData were from the UCL COVID -19 Social Study. The analytical sample consisted of 35,915 adults in England who were followed up for 22 weeks from 24th March to 23rd August 2020. Data were analysed using growth mixture models.FindingsOur analyses identified six classes of growth trajectories, including three stable classes showing little change over time (62.4% in total), two classes showing decreasing physical activity (28.6%), and one class showing increasing physical activity over time (9%). A range of factors were found to be associated the class membership of physical activity trajectories, such as age, gender, education, income, employment status, and health.InterpretationThere is substantial heterogeneity in longitudinal changes in physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a substantial proportion of our sample showed persistent physical inactivity or decreasing physical activity. Given the well-established linked between physical activity and health, persistent or increased physical inactivity is likely to have both immediate and long-term implications for people’s physical and mental health, as well as general wellbeing. More efforts are needed to promote physical activity during the pandemic and beyond.FundingNuffield Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, Wellcome Trust

Symptoms Compatible With Long Coronavirus Disease (COVID) in Healthcare Workers With and Without Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection—Results of a Prospective Multicenter Cohort

“…We also found having children <6 years to be negatively associated with neurocognitive impairment and fatigue, a finding which is not readily intuitive. However, increased physical activity during COVID-19 in HCW living with children has been reported, which may also explain the positive effects found in our study [38].…”

Longitudinal associations between physical activity and other health behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic: A fixed effects analysis

“…This study of over 50,000 UK adults extends previous research on the changing PA behaviours of the UK population during the first national lockdown period [50] by asking whether these changes were linked to variations in other health behaviours.…”

“…However, early evidence suggests that there has been extensive individual variation in changes in health behaviours during the pandemic, with studies reporting improvements in diet [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], alcohol consumption [41][42][43], and sleep for some individuals [35,44,45], despite evidence of population level decreases in PA, increases in sedentary time [27,46,47], alcohol consumption [41,48,49], and worse dietary choices [38]. The relationship between PA and these health behaviours is likely confounded by other major changes to people's lives such as having to strictly isolate, family or financial adversity, children not being at school, or psychological distress in the wake of social restrictions [50]. People may have also used PA during lockdown to compensate for other unhealthy behaviours, as has been found in pre-pandemic studies exploring health behaviours [51,52].…”

Longitudinal associations between physical activity and other health behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic: a fixed effects analysis

“…However, early evidence suggests there has been extensive individual variation in changes in health behaviours during the pandemic, with studies reporting improvements in diet 33 – 40 , alcohol consumption 41 – 43 , and sleep for some individuals 35 , 44 , 45 , despite evidence of population level decreases in PA, increases in sedentary time 27 , 46 , 47 and alcohol consumption 41 , 48 , 49 , and worse dietary choices 38 . The relationship between PA and these health behaviours is likely confounded by other major changes to people’s lives such as having to strictly isolate, family or financial adversity, children not being at school, or psychological distress in the wake of social restrictions 50 . People may have also used PA during lockdown to compensate for other unhealthy behaviours, as has been found in pre-pandemic studies exploring health behaviours 51 , 52 .…”