Abstract
In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) world pandemic, affected countries such as Spain enacted measures comprising compulsory confinement as well as restrictions regarding free movement. Such measures likely influence children's and adolescents' lifestyles. Our study aimed to investigate the impact that the Covid-19 confinement has on health-related behaviors (HRBs) among Spanish children and adolescents. An online survey was administered to 516 parents to collect data about 860 children and adolescents (49.2% girls) aged between 3 and 16 years in relation to physical activity, screen exposure, sleep time, and fruit and vegetable consumption during the Covid-19 confinement. Respectively, t-paired test and t-test between groups served to check differences between HRBs levels before and during the confinement as well as between strict and relaxed confinement. Significant differences were found for a reduction of weekly minutes of physical activity during the confinement (−102.5, SD 159.6) (p < 0.001), an increase of daily hours of screen exposure (2.9, SD 2.1) (p < 0.001), and a reduction of daily fruit and vegetable consumption (−0.2, SD 1.6) (p < 0.001). Sleep time showed a significant difference between strict and relaxed confinement (−0.3, SD 0.1) (p < 0.05), whereas binomial logistic regression adjusted for covariates (age, sex, education of the parents, siblings, current condition, exposure to Covid-19, and previous health risk behavior) showed significantly lower odds for screen exposure risk behavior with relaxed confinement (OR 0.60, 95%CI 0.40–0.91). The present study suggests that Covid-19 confinement reduced physical activity levels, increased both screen exposure and sleep time, and reduced fruit and vegetable consumption. Therefore, most HRBs worsened among this sample of Spanish children and adolescents. Closure of schools, online education, and the lack of policies addressing the conciliation between labor and family life could have played an important role in HRBs worsening among pupils, which might be mitigated with adequate conciliation policies, parental guidance, and community support.
Highlights
The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has forced many countries to enact confinement measures to reduce the spread of the virus (SARS-CoV-2)
Screen exposure shows a significant increase for all the participants as well as for all subgroups; the highest increase is observed for older participants who show 3.3 (SD 2.1) more daily hours
A reduction of physical activity (i.e., 2.30 h/week) has been found in prior research regarding confined children and adolescents due to Covid-19 [30]; such values were higher than those found in the present study, which observed a difference of 1.40 h/week in respect to previous confinement levels
Summary
The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has forced many countries to enact confinement measures to reduce the spread of the virus (SARS-CoV-2). The experience of a long period of confinement may have had a significant impact on those who have suffered the strictest restrictions of free movement and other potential consequences such as the problems for families derived from the lack of conciliation between labor and family life. In this regard, the compulsory movement restriction meant the prohibition of movement of children outside households up to 6 or more weeks in a row, with no certainty about potentially damaging consequences on their health and wellbeing. Several pupils have been affected by the temporary closing of their schools and high schools and the adoption of online learning platforms instead [5]
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