International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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Dear Colleagues,

Children’s physical, mental and social health has been a worrying problem in recent decades. The COVID-19 pandemic produces extra difficulties to this problem, such as sport parks/playgrounds closing and social distancing measures. According to recent studies related to the impact of COVID-19 on children’s physical activity (PA), physical fitness (PF), and sedentary behaviors (SB), environmental restrictions have induced negative health outcomes to children’s lifestyle and daily activities including less outdoor PA time, declining PF, higher screen time, poorer sleeping, higher rate of myopia and obesity, etc.

School could be the most ideal venue to provide a safe, resourceful, and organized environment for children’s growth and development under the new normal once schools open for children’s regular activities. Some studies have been suggested to employ different forms of interventions and modern technology to support physical education and promote extracurricular school activities to tackle the pandemic barriers in children’s PA behavior. The investigation of how to promote PA and tackle challenges in school during the pandemic will have significant and long-term influence on promoting children’s PA, PF, SB, and overall health.

To provide better guidelines for health promotion and intervention research on school children’s PA, PF, and SB, it is imperative to produce a more evidence-based foundation to tackle challenges. Research based on prospective longitudinal studies, random controlled trials, meta-analyses, intervention methods, and the application of these methods on this topic are invited for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Patrick W. C. Lau
Dr. Jingjing Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic
children’s physical activity
children’s physical fitness
children’s sedentary behavior
healthy school
children’s health
physical activity promotion

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

12 pages, 832 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Longitudinal Shifts in Movement Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Relations to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among University Students

by Jie Feng, Patrick Wing Chung Lau, Lei Shi and Wendy Yajun Huang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13449; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013449 - 18 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1952

Abstract

This study examined the longitudinal changes of movement behaviors and their relationships with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among university students during the coronavirus disease 2019 in China. A total of 569 university students completed online surveys twice (Time 1: between December 2020 and January 2021; Time 2: between November and December 2021). Physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep duration and quality, as well as PTSD were self-reported. According to Canadian 24-h movement guidelines, the longitudinal shifts in each movement behavior from Time 1 to Time 2 were divided into four categories (consistently meeting the guidelines, from meeting to not meeting the guidelines, from not meeting to meeting the guidelines, and consistently not meeting the guidelines). Generalized linear mixed models were conducted using 410 valid responses (20.2 ± 1.0 years old at Time 2, 41.2% males). From Time 1 to Time 2, 22.2%, 2.0%, and 45.6% of the students consistently met the physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep guidelines, respectively. Compared to those who consistently met the sedentary behavior guideline, students who consistently failed to meet or changed from meeting to not meeting the guidelines had higher levels of PTSD. Students who had poor sleep quality at both time points or changed from good to bad sleep quality had higher levels of PTSD than those who maintained good sleep quality over time. Compared to those who consistently failed to meet the guideline, students who consistently met the PA guideline had higher levels of PTSD. These findings highlight the needs to improve and maintain healthy behaviors for mental health. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Healthy School in COVID-19: Health Promotion Issues and Challenges)

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