Mitchell, John J;
Dicken, Samuel J;
Kale, Dimitra;
Herbec, Aleksandra;
Beard, Emma;
Shahab, Lion;
(2022)
Longitudinal changes and correlates of meeting WHO recommended levels of physical activity in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from the HEBECO study.
PLoS One
, 17
(8)
, Article e0273530. 10.1371/journal.pone.0273530.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has seen repeated government enforced restrictions on movement. This study aimed to evaluate longitudinal trends in physical activity (PA) in a self-selected UK-based sample and identify the key correlates of these trends. METHODS: From 23 April 2020 to 30 January 2021, measures of PA engagement were collected in a sample of 1,947 UK-based adults. Generalised estimating equations (GEE) explored trends in PA engagement over time, and how sociodemographic, health and contextual factors impacted participant's attainment of World Health Organization (WHO) recommended levels of PA (constituting muscle strengthening activity (MSA), and moderate or vigorous PA (MVPA)). RESULTS: While one in five achieved the recommended levels of PA in the first UK lockdown in April-June 2020 (19.5%, 95%CI: 17.8-21.3%) and a similar proportion in June-July 2020 (17.7%, 95%CI: 16.1-19.5%), this reduced during the period of eased restrictions in August-September 2020 (15.2%, 95%CI: 13.7-16.9%) and the second UK lockdown in November 2020-January 2021 (14.1%, 95%CI: 12.6-15.9%). Similar trends were observed for MSA and MVPA individually. Better quality of life, higher socioeconomic position and pre-COVID-19 PA levels were associated with meeting the WHO recommended levels of PA, while those living with overweight or obesity, a limiting health condition, or isolating showed the inverse associations. Time-specific associations with MSA or MVPA were observed for gender and age. CONCLUSION: Reductions in PA levels throughout the first strict lockdown continued without reversal during the ensuing period. The association of negative change with socioeconomic and health-related indices points towards deepening health inequities during the pandemic.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Longitudinal changes and correlates of meeting WHO recommended levels of physical activity in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from the HEBECO study |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0273530 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273530 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2022 Mitchell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | Humans, Exercise, Communicable Disease Control, Quality of Life, Adult, World Health Organization, Pandemics, United Kingdom, COVID-19 |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154790 |
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