The incidence of COVID-19: a geographical analysis of 7676 Brazilian CrossFit participants

Abstract

Purpose We aimed to investigate in the CrossFit population the incidence of COVID-19 hospitalization, the proportional relationship between Brazilian region and motivation, the proportional relationship between age and COVID-19 positive diagnosis, the proportional relationship between COVID-19 positive diagnosis and training experience, the proportional relationship between COVID-19 positive diagnoses and training frequency, and finally proportional relationship between genre and COVID-19 positive diagnose and genre. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 7676 CrossFit subjects. Subjects were asked about their age, genre, demographic region resident, training experience, weekly practice training, motivation to training, COVID-19 contamination (y/n), hospitalization due to COVID-19, days hospitalized by COVID-19, and treatment used against COVID-19. Results The positive COVID-19 index was 26.1% (1997 cases). Only 0.3% of the CrossFit subjects were hospitalized. The North demographic region was less motivated to train CrossFit than the South region. We did not find significance for COVID-19 contamination and genre, training frequency, training experience, and age. Conclusions We concluded that CrossFit subjects were low exposed to being hospitalized due to COVID-19. They were low motivated, and the North regions were less motivated to train CrossFit than the South region. This study strengthens the evidence of physical exercise as a part of the protection against COVID-19 hospitalization. Exercise coaches should rethink how to insert CrossFit training into lockdown periods to maintain its participants' highly motivated training.