Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted physical activity, particularly among women. Limited research has explored how social network support may explain gender-based variations in physical activity during COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of social networks in the association between gender and physical activity during a pandemic. This cross-sectional survey assessed whether social network characteristics (i.e., in-person social network size, frequency of in-person social network interactions, and online friend network size) mediate the relationship between gender and either past-week or past-year physical activity. Multiple mediation analyses were conducted to determine the indirect effect of gender on physical activity through social networks. Among 205 participants, women (n = 129) were significantly less physically active (β = −73.82; p = 0.02) than men (n = 76) and reported significantly more Facebook friends (β = 0.30; p < 0.001) than men, which was inversely associated with past-week physical activity (β = −64.49; p = 0.03). Additionally, the indirect effect of gender on past-week physical activity through Facebook friends was significant (β = −19.13; 95% CI [−40.45, −2.09]). Findings suggest that social media sites such as Facebook could be used to encourage physical activity among women during a pandemic.
Highlights
Published: 22 February 2022The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults 18 years or older perform at least 150 min per week of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 min per week of vigorous-intensity exercise along with at least two days of muscle-strengthening activity to achieve the health benefits associated with an active lifestyle [1]
Basedon onour ourmediation mediation analyses, found association between being feand having lower past-week physical activity was partially mediated by a key feature of male and having lower past-week physical activity was partially mediated by a key feaonline structure, i.e., the number of Facebook friends.friends
The non-sigeffects of friend network size and friend contact frequency betweenbetween gender nificant effects of friend network size and friend contact frequency and both past-week and past-year physical activity suggest that online social network gender and both past-week and past-year physical activity suggest that online social netcharacteristics may be more salient than in-person social networks for influencing women’s work characteristics may be more salient than in-person social networks for influencing physical activity
Summary
Published: 22 February 2022The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults 18 years or older perform at least 150 min per week of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 min per week of vigorous-intensity exercise along with at least two days of muscle-strengthening activity to achieve the health benefits associated with an active lifestyle [1]. Pre-COVID-19, a study across 168 countries with almost 2 million participants (≥18 years of age) revealed that 32% of women versus 23% of men are inactive [4]. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, women have continued to be less engaged in physical activity than men [5,6]. These gender differences in physical activity have largely been attributed to pre-existing low levels of social support [5,7] and heightened demands, such as managing full-time employment together with household tasks and child care [7]. Alongside women’s lower levels of activity, COVID-19 restrictions that increase social isolation have exacerbated concerns associated with mental health [7,8,9]
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