Measuring the Physical Activity of Seniors before and during COVID-19 Restrictions in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Social workers require a better understanding of the impact of pandemic measures on the level of physical activity of their clients to better target client activation. In this retrospective tracker-based study (two years of measurement), we examined changes in the physical activity of the elderly population (204 participants with an average age of 84.5 years) in the Czech Republic as a result of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Physical activity was statistically compared according to the physical, demographic and social conditions of the participants. In addition to observing the expected activity decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic, we made several hypotheses based on the sex, age group, body mass index, type of housing (apartment or house) and size of the city of residence. We found that 33% of the 204 participants had increased levels of physical activity in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Central Europe. We found that the size of the city where the seniors lived and the type of housing did not affect the general level of physical activity. When comparing physical acquisition rates in each month of 2019 and 2020, we saw the largest declines in April and May 2020, that is, one month after the start of the lockdown.

Factors associated with decreased physical activity levels among community-dwelling residents during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: a long-term observational study

“…Most studies investigating physical activity levels and related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic have used questionnaires to measure physical activity levels 36 , 37 , 38 ) . Janovsky et al reported that subjective assessments of physical activity levels might overestimate the decline in physical activity levels compared to objective assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic 39 ) . Therefore, it is highly likely that this study, which used an objective assessment method, provided an accurate assessment of physical activity levels.…”

Physical Activity versus Selected Health Behaviors, Subjective Physical and Psychological Health and Multimorbidity in a Large Cohort of Polish Seniors during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Results of the National Test for Poles’ Health )

“…However, a group of subjects (42%) experienced an increase in their physical activity during the pandemic when compared to the same month in the year prior [42]. A meta-analysis of 173 studies revealed that, during COVID-19 lockdowns, physical activity decreased and sedentary behavior increased at the same time [43]. Another study from South Africa showed that moderate to high levels of physical activity may have significant benefits especially in preventing negative outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization, ICU admission, ventilation and death [44].…”

Growth in the development of health and fitness mobile apps amid COVID-19 pandemic

“…The oldest app in the dataset was released on September 28, 2008. The description of the dataset is listed in Table 1, and the dataset is available to download on this link 3 .…”

“… 1 Collective trauma is defined as a significant event that negatively affects the population. 2 The pandemic declined people's physical activity as observed by Janovský et al 3 and Konda et al 4 Specifically, the pandemic hampered fitness activities in gyms and encouraged people to explore alternate fitness activities such as workouts at home, yoga, and meditation, as Kaur et al 5 discussed. Technology has played a pivotal role in maintaining H-F activities during the pandemic through mHealth (mobile health) and mobile apps.…”