The effect of covid-19 home confinement in physical activity of University of Baguio's college student-athletes

Abstract

Introduction: The pandemic resulted in suspension of the university's face-to-face classes, eliminating the student-athletes' access to the campus' sports facilities leading to a halt in training and scheduled sports events. The main goal of the study was to determine the effect of COVID-19 home confinement on the student-athletes enrolled in the University of Baguio. Methods: The study was a prevalence survey-study design under descriptive study designs aimed to determine the effect of home confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the University of Baguio's college student-athletes' physical activity. The respondents of the study consisted of a total of 45 studentathletes under the following sports: Archery, Arnis, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Judo, Muay Thai Wushu, Table tennis, Taekwondo, and Volleyball. Furthermore, the researchers asked the respondents to answer the questionnaire - an adapted material from the IPAQ-SF tool through the Google Forms platform. Results: Out of the 45 student-athletes inside the institution and the utilization of International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Short Form (IPAQ-SF) data gathering tool, the researchers found that there was a decrease in the number of days and amount of time spent walking and executing moderate and vigorous physical activities during COVID-19 home confinement; with majority of the student-athletes spending 6 days per week with the said activities. It also revealed that the student-athletes increased their time spent sitting during this period with the options 8 & 10 hours per day have resulted in the highest number of student-athletes spent sitting with five responses each. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences in the frequency before (p = .416) and during (p = .619) COVID-19 home confinement on studentsathletes physical activity according to the different types of sports. Discussion: These findings indicate not only a decrease in physical activity but also an adjunct increase in sedentary activity, specifically sitting. There were contrasting findings regarding the physical activity demonstrated by each sport where some studentathletes from a certain sport increased their frequency in physical activity, and some had decreased. Several sports, such as archery and basketball, demonstrated a slight increase in the frequency of physical activity during COVID-19 home confinement. In comparison, sports, such as Wushu, Muay Thai, and volleyball, expressed higher physical activity before COVID-19 home confinement. Despite this, the results show that the home confinement caused by COVID-19 lockdown did not lead to a significant increase or decrease in the frequency of their physical activity. While other factors may also be at play towards the student-athletes' frequency of physical activity before and during the COVID-19 home confinement period, meeting and maintaining the recommended physical activity by the World Health Organization (WHO) may prove to be advantageous to the student-athletes.