Background: COVID-19 has changed the world and strongly affected the health of the people and the quality of their life. These changes might impact employees’ physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB). This study aimed to summarize the literature focusing on the COVID-19-caused changes in physical activity and sedentary behavior among the adult working population. Methods: Literature searches were conducted in June 2021 using multiple electronic databases. The following keywords and synonyms were used during the searching process: physical activity, sedentary behavior, COVID-19, employee. After the data cleaning process (duplicates, inclusion criteria), the title and the abstract of all manuscripts from the searches were screened independently by two reviewers. Results: Thirty-nine manuscripts were selected as a result of the searching process. Of these, 5 were SB related, 15 were PA related and 19 addressed both PA and SB. There were longitudinal (10), cross-sectional (28) and a case study (1) in the selected manuscripts. The majority of studies were conducted in the USA (6) and Europe (18), and four studies examined the PA and/or SB in multiple countries. The majority (34 studies) of the studies used subjective, self-reported, but mostly before-validated questionnaires. Objective measures were less common and used only 12.8% of the examined studies. Moreover, 76.4% of the studies described an overall decrease in the amount of PA during the COVID-19 pandemic. In three cases, researchers observed an increase in PA among the workers. Five studies reported no significant changes in the amount of PA during the pandemic. As far as SB is concerned, 18 out of 24 of the studies reported an overall increase in the amount of SB between the two periods. Four manuscripts reported no significant change in the amount of SB, and there was only one manuscript in the examined studies that reported an overall decrease in the SB time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion: There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic, including lockdown and work from home (WFH) policies, impaired the PA and SB level of the populations. This period has delivered an important message for the adult working population as well. They should be as active as possible and avoid high levels of SB and uninterrupted sitting time. Therefore, organizations, policies and public health bodies should motivate workers, especially office workers, to be more active and interventions must be developed to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 on PA and SB.
Introduction: Physical activity is inversely proportional to mortality, so it has an important role in disease prevention. The aim of our study was to characterize the physical activity of Hungarians, the most obese population in Europe. Materials and methods: In a cross-sectional study the physical activity of the Hungarian population was characterized in a sample (n = 1,295) which was representative of the sex, age and geographical location of the adult population aged 18 years and above by using the long form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaires (IPAQ) as an instrument. Based on the metabolic equivalent (MET) rates three categories of physical activity (low, moderate, and high) were defined. Two-step cluster analysis was used to explore physical activity characteristics of participants using sex, age, settlement type and BMI categories as categorical variables, and MET values related to the Work, Transportation, Domestic and Garden, and Leisure Time domains of physical activity as continuous variables. Results: The study showed that 63.39% of the adult Hungarian population took part in high, and 24.78% in moderate activity, and only 11.73% of the sample belonged to the category of low physical activity. By cluster analysis six clusters of people with typical lifestyles could be identified in the Hungarian adult population. In all the six groups participants achieved moderate or high activity levels through work and housework. Physical activity in relation to transportation is very low, similarly to leisure-time sporting activities. In the case of elder people, severe overweight/obesity problems can be detected in married city-dwellers. Discussion: Although Hungary has the highest obesity rate in Europe our research has proved that Hungarians lead physically active lives. The dominant forms of their physical activity are linked to work and housework. Our findings draw attention to the need to examine other risk factors in addition to physical inactivity. Our findings also suggest that the type of physical activity should be more severely considered when defining factors protective against obesity.
The pharmaceutical sector is one of the most profitable industries in the world, despite the very high proportion of the required research and development costs that determine the activity itself and the high risks involved in investing in them. In addition to a number of industry-specific characteristics, the innovation policies of each country might also have a significant impact on the efficiency of pharmaceutical companies. The primary aim of the research was to demonstrate this effect in the case of the Visegrád countries. The ROE seemed to best reflect the ownership interests and the combined effect of other profitability ratios and it was confirmed by analysis of variance. The analysis was based on the EMIS corporate database; multivariate statistical methods were applied to demonstrate the reaching of indicator trends, and from among those methods regression analysis was applied in particular. Based on the findings, it was concluded that primarily the more profitable pharmaceutical companies were able to utilize their assets more efficiently, while manufacturers in the latter category financed their operations with external capital to a lower extent. Although the indicators of the analysed companies showed a very high standard deviation in all four countries, the results of the regression were only outstanding in Slovakia, which had a very low number of cases. In addition, temporal tendencies have been almost the same in the entire region, which was also influenced by the fact that return on capital of the business entities within the sector decreased by 2016 throughout the region. JEL classification:C12, C21, C25, C55.
In the past two decades the sports sector has turned its attention to understanding the idea of sustainability, particularly to the practical steps related to this. The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities carried out by teams playing in the Premier League and the Primera División in the 2018/2019 season, and how these CSR actions serve environmental protection and society, manifesting the concept of sustainable development. We applied comparative analysis based on secondary databases. We examined the available reports regarding all the 40 teams, focusing on information about their CSR aspirations and related academic research results, and we worked out specific criteria to evaluate environmentally and socially related CSR activities. Arsenal and Real Madrid were chosen to show good practices that can serve as examples for the other members of the sports sector. At Premier League clubs, the practical application of the CSR activities has been intensively developed. Clubs share detailed statistical information about their actions, while some of the clubs even publish their future plans. The quantity and detail of the information found with Primera División clubs is rather varied. Some clubs introduce their CSR activities in full detail; however, in the case of most clubs, the accessible information is rather superficial and lacks any exact descriptions. The findings clearly show that the sports world is consciously shifting towards the realization of sustainable development, which requires a comprehensive reconnection of sporting society and an increase in awareness in order to achieve the efficient and successful integration of CSR activities into sport.
Global economic, social and environmental changes are inspiring companies to behave responsibly towards the environment, not only in the interest of others, but also in that of the future of their companies. It is crucial that companies are able to recognize any lack in their ability to grow values in a timely manner, because issues at companies require immediate intervention. A key factor in maintaining operations is the time interval required for companies to adjust to challenges. Are Annual Reports capable of indicating problems or possibly to inform decision-makers that a company is entering a period of decline? Such information can be gathered from the notes to the financial statement. Are annually prepared statements capable of indicating problems? Definitely, yes. Do yearly once due statements provide enough information? The answer must be no, as we are not living in a static economic environment. The more dynamic our economic environment is, the greater the role played by the question of time. Thanks to improvements in accounting and technology, we are able to create up-to-date analyses, based on accounting statements. However, in order to be effective, teamwork inside the company is essential and controllers should play a key role.
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