How The Covid-19 Pandemic Affected The Physical Activity Of Different Members Of A University Community

Abstract

Adequate physical activity (PA) is important factor for improving or maintaining health and preventing chronic disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large scale transition to remote learning and working, which may have an impact on the daily PA that individuals obtain, potentially impacting their health. PURPOSE: To examine how the shutdown of a University due to COVID-19 impacted the PA habits of students and faculty/staff, and to explore whether either group was impacted to a greater extent. METHODS: Individuals who wore a commercial PA monitoring device for 30 days prior to, and after, the James Madison University (JMU) spring break in March 2020 were recruited from the JMU community. Spring break is when JMU transitioned from in-person to online instruction. Subjects completed an anonymous survey and input step data from their PA device. RESULTS: Eighty subjects (age = 32.2 ± 13.6, BMI = 26.3 ± 6.8, 62 females, 17 males) completed the survey. 42 were students and 38 were faculty/staff. For the 7 days prior to spring break compared to the 7 days after spring break, there was a main effect for time for steps per day (8688.7 ± 3365.3 vs. 7128.2 ± 3365.3, respectively; P < 0.001), but no difference between students and faculty/staff. 30 days prior to spring break compared to 30 days after, there was a group x time interaction, with the students decreasing their steps after spring break (8307.4 ± 3128.3 vs. 6159.7 ± 2737.6) to a greater extent than faculty/staff (8760.4 ± 3366.5 vs. 8109.8 ± 4160.7; P = 0.002). A group x time interaction was also seen for weekend days (P = 0.01). Students decreased their weekend steps after spring break (7543.6 ± 3291.6 vs. 6391.4 ± 3149.3) whereas faculty/staff did not (8750.0 ± 4305 vs. 8876.1 ± 4874.1). Finally, there was a group x time interaction for weekday steps (P = 0.003) with students decreasing (8621.6 ± 3225.9 vs. 6076.4 ± 2722.4) to a greater extent than faculty/staff (8741.8 ± 3212.6 vs. 7817.2 ± 4015.9). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that when JMU transitioned to online learning, students decreased their daily PA more than faculty/staff. This is likely due to the elimination of daily transport based PA that students would normally participate in, such as walking to classes, etc., whereas faculty/staff likely did less of this type of PA during a regular work day.