How COVID-19 Affects Health Status of Chinese Immigrants

Abstract

Digital health information technology combines current health information, health management as well as health resource globally. It also provides a new model of health management platform to learn the impact of COVID-19 on health status of adults. The COVID-19 pandemic effectively increases people’s sedentary time, which might negatively influence people’s levels of health-related quality of life (HRQol) and perceived stress. This study aimed to provide information about the levels of and the association of the sedentary time and levels of HRQol and perceived stress of Chinese immigrants in Australia at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-section online survey was conducted among 60 Chinese immigrants in Australia (57.6% female). There was no significant increase of sedentary time during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the pre-COVID-19 period, with only a slight increase from an average of 5.5 to 5.65 hours per day. Almost half of the participants (40.0%) reported moderate levels of perceived stress. Participants’ average physical component summary score (PCS) and mental component summary score (MCS) for HRQoL were 82.71 (SD = 15.02) and 75.83 (SD = 17.73) respectively. Significant correlations between levels of perceived stress and HRQoL were observed (p < 0.05). Prolonged sitting time was also found to have a negative effect on HRQoL (p < 0.05). During the early stage of the COVID-19, public health strategies aimed at decreasing sedentary time among the Chinese immigrants in Australia may be necessary to maintain health on a population level.