Effects of COVID-19 home confinement on physical activity and eating behaviour Preliminary results of the ECLB-COVID19 international online-survey

  1. Achraf Ammar
  2. Michael Brach
  3. Khaled Trabelsi
  4. Hamdi Chtourou
  5. Omar Boukhris
  6. Liwa Masmoudi
  7. Bassem Bouaziz
  8. Ellen Bentlage
  9. Daniella How
  10. Mona Ahmed
  11. Patrick Mueller
  12. Notger Mueller
  13. Asma Aloui
  14. Omar Hammouda
  15. Laisa Liane Paineiras-Domingos
  16. Annemarie Braakman-jansen
  17. Christian Wrede
  18. Sophia Bastoni
  19. Carlos Soares Pernambuco
  20. Leonardo Mataruna
  21. Morteza Taheri
  22. Khadijeh Irandoust
  23. Aïmen Khacharem
  24. Nicola L Bragazzi
  25. Karim Chamari
  26. Jordan M Glenn
  27. Nicholas T Bott
  28. Faiez Gargouri
  29. Lotfi Chaari
  30. Hadj Batatia
  31. Gamal Mohamed Ali
  32. Osama Abdelkarim
  33. Mohamed Jarraya
  34. Kais El Abed
  35. Nizar Souissi
  36. Lisette Van Gemert-Pijnen
  37. Bryan L Riemann
  38. Laurel Riemann
  39. Wassim Moalla
  40. Jonathan Gómez-Raja
  41. Monique Epstein
  42. Robbert Sanderman
  43. Sebastian Schulz
  44. Achim Jerg
  45. Ramzi Al-Horani
  46. Taysir Mansi
  47. Mohamed Jmail
  48. Fernando Barbosa
  49. Fernando Santos
  50. Boštjan Šimunič
  51. Rado Pišot
  52. Donald Cowan
  53. Andrea Gaggioli
  54. Stephen J Bailey
  55. Jürgen Steinacker
  56. Tarak Driss
  57. Anita Hoekelmann
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Abstract

Background

Public health recommendations and governmental measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have enforced numerous restrictions on daily living including social distancing, isolation and home confinement. While these measures are imperative to abate the spreading of COVID-19, the impact of these restrictions on health behaviours and lifestyle at home is undefined. Therefore, an international online survey was launched in April 2020 in seven languages to elucidate the behavioral and lifestyle consequences of COVID-19 restrictions. This report presents the preliminary results from the first thousand responders on physical activity (PA) and nutrition behaviours.

Methods

Thirty-five research organisations from Europe, North-Africa, Western Asia and the Americas promoted the survey through their networks to the general society, in English, German, French, Arabic, Spanish, Portugese, and Slovenian languages. Questions were presented in a differential format with questions related to responses “before” and “during” confinement conditions.

Results

1047 replies (54% women) from Asia (36%), Africa (40%), Europe (21%) and other (3%) were included into a general analysis. The COVID-19 home confinement had a negative effect on all intensities of PA (vigorous, moderate, walking and overall). Conversely, daily sitting time increased from 5 to 8 hours per day. Additionally, food consumption and meal patterns (the type of food, eating out of control, snacks between meals, number of meals) were more unhealthy during confinement with only alcohol binge drink decreasing significantly.

Conclusion

While isolation is a necessary measure to protect public health, our results indicate that it alters physical activity and eating behaviours in a direction that would compromise health. A more detailed analysis of survey data will allow for a segregation of these responses in different age groups, countries and other subgroups which will help develop bespoke interventions to mitigate the negative lifestyle behaviors manifest during the COVID-19 confinement.

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