Influência do distanciamento social no nível de atividade física durante a pandemia do COVID-19

Abstract

This study investigated how measures of social distancing to mitigate COVID-19 influences physical activity level. A structured questionnaire with questions related to the practice of physical activities before and during the period of social distancing was provided online to collect informations of the 2004 adults (aged >18 years) who lived in municipalities from all five regions in Brazil. A Chi-square test was used to assess associations between physical activity level previous and during the pandemic period. Associations between intervening variables were verified using odds ratio. The participants reduced the level of physical activity after the adoption of social distancing measures. The highest level of physical activity during the pandemic is associated with male sex, living in the metropolitan region and not being a higher-risk group. Although these factors already influenced physical activity level before the pandemic, odds ratio results indicated that in the pandemic period the sex, region and risk factors showed reductions in their predictive power. Questions raised in this study can help to plan actions aimed at encouraging the practice of physical activities in times of crisis.