Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a global effect on people's lifestyles. Many people have become physically inactive and developed irregular eating patterns, which leads to unhealthier lifestyles and aggravation of lifestyle-related diseases; these in turn increase the severity of COVID-19. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a smartphone application called "Taberhythm" to investigate eating patterns, physical activity, and subjective feelings of happiness. We aimed to compare lifestyle data before and during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to objectively assess lifestyle changes during quarantine. A total of 464 smartphone users (346 women, 35 ± 12 years old, body mass index [BMI] 23.4 ± 4.5) participated in Period A (January 7 to April 28, 2019) and 622 smartphone users (533 women, 32 ± 11 years old, BMI 23.3 ± 4.0) participated in Period B (January 6 to April 26, 2020). Compared with Period A, there was a sharp decline in physical activity during Period B (4642 ± 3513 vs. 3814 ± 3529 steps/day, p<0.001), especially during the final 9 weeks in both periods (4907 ± 3908 vs. 3528 ± 3397 steps/day, p<0.001); however, there were large variations in physical activity among participants. We found a surprising trend during Period B toward increased happiness among women aged 30-50 years, the group most affected by stay-at-home policies that led to working from home and school closure. Moreover, daily eating duration declined in this population. Additionally, there was a positive association of happiness with steps per day in Period B (ρ = 0.38, p = 0.02). Despite the many negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, subjective feelings of happiness among middle-aged Japanese women tended to increase, which indicates that some favorable lifestyle changes that could be adopted during quarantine in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which occurred in China in December 2019, was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 and has rapidly spread all over the world, including Japan
Irrespective of multiple counts for the same participants, over time, the raw data showed a tendency toward later and larger changes in wake-up time during Period B compared with Period A (Fig 1)
We found that there was a favorable change in subjective feelings of happiness in at least some populations, which may be helpful in identifying positive lifestyle changes that could be made during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which occurred in China in December 2019, was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 and has rapidly spread all over the world, including Japan. A cohort study in the United Kingdom showed that a healthier lifestyle that included regular eating patterns with healthier food choices and increased physical activity, which together form a key strategy to prevent lifestyle-related diseases, reduces the risk of COVID-19 hospital admission [2]. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed lifestyles dramatically, with many people working from home and having little contact with people other than family members. These changes have possibly led to less physical activity, altered rhythms of daily life, and unhealthier lifestyles. One international online survey identified unhealthier food consumption and meal patterns, as well as decreased physical activity and increased sedentary time, during quarantine [3]
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