Abstract
To counteract the COVIC-19 pandemic, many governments have introduced social distancing measures. While these restrictions helped contain the virus, it had adverse effects on individuals’ mental and physical health—especially children. The aim of the present study is to review the evidence on the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on children’s physical activity and their determinants. A scoping review was conducted in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, SportDiscus, and BISp-Surf. Inclusion criteria were empirical and peer-reviewed studies, youth samples, investigation of COVID-19 restrictions, and investigating changes and/or determinants of physical activity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Risk of bias was assessed using the checklist by Downs and Black. The search resulted in 1672 studies, of which 84 studies were included in the analysis. The results highlighted a decrease in physical activity during the pandemic, ranging between −10.8 min/day and −91 min/day. If an increase was detected, it related to unstructured and outdoor activities. The main determinants of children’s physical activity during the pandemic were age, gender, socioeconomic background, and the outdoor environment. The results imply that governments need to consider the negative effects that restrictive measures have on children’s physical activity and act to ensure high levels of physical activity.
Highlights
Since December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for the COVID-19 disease, has spread across the globe and caused a global pandemic
Many national governments have introduced countermeasures to counteract the disease and avoid infections, including social distancing policies, closure of schools, shops and leisure opportunities, contact restrictions, and curfews. While these restrictions effectively slowed down the spread of the virus and contained the disease, they came with negative externalities as individuals were forced to stay home, which increased the risk of social isolation [2]
Restricting leisure opportunities such as sports created a barrier to physical activity, while at the same time, sedentary time increased during lockdown due to more time spent at home [3]
Summary
Since December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for the COVID-19 disease, has spread across the globe and caused a global pandemic. Many national governments have introduced countermeasures to counteract the disease and avoid infections, including social distancing policies, closure of schools, shops and leisure opportunities, contact restrictions, and curfews. While these restrictions effectively slowed down the spread of the virus and contained the disease, they came with negative externalities as individuals were forced to stay home, which increased the risk of social isolation [2]. Restricting leisure opportunities such as sports created a barrier to physical activity, while at the same time, sedentary time increased during lockdown due to more time spent at home [3]. Physical activity was widely recommended by national governments during the time to maintain a healthy lifestyle [4]
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