Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults

Meyer, Jacob; McDowell, Cillian; Lansing, Jeni; Brower, Cassandra; Smith, Lee; Tully, Mark; Herring, Matthew

doi:10.3390/ijerph17186469

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Erratum published on 23 September 2020, see Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(19), 6949.

Open AccessArticle

Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults

^1,*,†

^2,†,

¹,

⁴

and

Matthew Herring

⁵

Department of Kinesiology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Aging and School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin D02 R590, Ireland

Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 2LZ, UK

⁴

Institute of Mental Health Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine BT37 0QB, UK

⁵

Physical Activity for Health Research Cluster, Health Research Institute, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(18), 6469; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186469

Received: 7 August 2020 / Revised: 25 August 2020 / Accepted: 2 September 2020 / Published: 5 September 2020

(This article belongs to the Section Exercise and Health)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Review Reports Citation Export

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic altered many facets of life. We aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19-related public health guidelines on physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior, mental health, and their interrelations. Cross-sectional data were collected from 3052 US adults 3–8 April 2020 (from all 50 states). Participants self-reported pre- and post-COVID-19 levels of moderate and vigorous PA, sitting, and screen time. Currently-followed public health guidelines, stress, loneliness, positive mental health (PMH), social connectedness, and depressive and anxiety symptoms were self-reported. Participants were grouped by meeting US PA guidelines, reporting ≥8 h/day of sitting, or ≥8 h/day of screen time, pre- and post-COVID-19. Overall, 62% of participants were female, with age ranging from 18–24 (16.6% of sample) to 75+ (9.3%). Self-reported PA was lower post-COVID among participants reporting being previously active (mean change: −32.3% [95% CI: −36.3%, −28.1%]) but largely unchanged among previously inactive participants (+2.3% [−3.5%, +8.1%]). No longer meeting PA guidelines and increased screen time were associated with worse depression, loneliness, stress, and PMH (p < 0.001). Self-isolation/quarantine was associated with higher depressive and anxiety symptoms compared to social distancing (p < 0.001). Maintaining and enhancing physical activity participation and limiting screen time increases during abrupt societal changes may mitigate the mental health consequences. View Full-Text

Keywords: COVID; physical activity; screen time; sitting time; sedentary; mental health; public health; depression; anxiety; loneliness

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Supplementary Material

Supplementary File 1:
PDF-Document (PDF, 116 KiB)

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Meyer, J.; McDowell, C.; Lansing, J.; Brower, C.; Smith, L.; Tully, M.; Herring, M. Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 6469. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186469

AMA Style

Meyer J, McDowell C, Lansing J, Brower C, Smith L, Tully M, Herring M. Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(18):6469. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186469

Chicago/Turabian Style

Meyer, Jacob, Cillian McDowell, Jeni Lansing, Cassandra Brower, Lee Smith, Mark Tully, and Matthew Herring. 2020. "Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 18: 6469. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186469

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults

Abstract

Supplementary Material

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI