Sports Participation and Anti-Epidemic: Empirical Evidence on the Influence of Regular Physical Activity on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mainland China

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects and influencing mechanisms of regular physical activity (RPA) on the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily data from 279 prefecture-level cities in mainland China were collected from 1 January to 17 March 2020. A two-way fixed-effects model was used to identify the causal relationship between physical activity and COVID-19, while also considering factors such as patterns of human behavior and socioeconomic conditions. The instrumental variable (IV) approach was applied to address potential endogeneity issues for a more accurate causal identification, and the mediating effect model was applied to examine the mechanisms of the influence of physical activity on the epidemic. We found that regular physical activity significantly improves individual immunity, which, in turn, leads to a reduction in the probability of being infected with COVID-19. Furthermore, we investigated the heterogeneity of the influence, finding that the negative impact of physical activity on the pandemic is more pronounced in the absence of adequate medical resources, strong awareness of prevention among residents, and fully implemented public health measures. Our results provide empirical evidence for the mechanisms of influence of physical activity on the pandemic. We would suggest that not only should physical activity be actively practiced during the pandemic, but also long-term regular exercise habits should be consciously cultivated to improve the ability of the individual immune system to better cope with sudden outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased health inequalities by altering patterns of engagement with a mass participation event after resumption post-lockdown

“…This could be related to older, less fit women avoiding more crowded parkruns to reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19. Both age and fitness are associated with the increasing risks of contracting COVID-19 [38,39] so it appears that older, less fit females could be more risk averse and are avoiding busier events. This is consistent with a study in Kenya that found that women in higher social classes were the most likely to reduce their levels of physical activity during lockdown [14].…”

“…Studies have shown that the health benefits of moderate and mild sport are particularly high and that there is likely to be great value gained from organisations such as parkrun in stimulating the less active to engage in more activity, so public funding to support and aid recovery after lockdown is key to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic [40]. Furthermore, a study in China has shown that physical activity before the pandemic significantly improved the outcome of those infected with COVID-19 showing a community and population benefit to physical activity which makes the population more resilient to future waves of COVID-19 and other potential pandemic events [38]. Studies have also shown for older adults how important the social aspect of being part of a regular exercise group, this is something that parkrun excels at providing [15] Studies have also found that those in more vulnerable groups were the most likely to reduce their physical activity levels and avoid green spaces during lockdown [39].…”