Abstract
Physical activity (PA) is beneficial for the health and wellness of individuals and societies. During an infectious disease pandemic, such as the one caused by COVID-19, social distancing, quarantines, and lockdowns are used to reduce community spread of the disease. Unfortunately, such nonpharmacological interventions or physical risk mitigation measures also make it challenging to engage in PA. Reduced PA could then trigger physiological changes that affect both mental and physical health. In this regard, women are more likely to experience physical and psychological distress. PA is a safe and effective nonpharmacological modality that can help prevent and manage several mental and physical health problems when performed correctly. PA might even confer benefits that are directly related to decreasing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in women. In this review, we summarize why optimal PA must be a priority for women during the COVID-19 pandemic. We then discuss chronic COVID-19 illness and its impact on women, which further underscores the need for worldwide preventive health strategies that include PA. Finally, we discuss the importance of vaccination against COVID-19 for women, as part of prioritizing preventive healthcare and an active lifestyle.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) a pandemic on 11 March 2020 [1,2]
States collected during the first month of the vaccine rollout when only mRNA vaccines were available showed that more women (61.2%) received vaccination compared to men [164]
Since the health of individuals in any part of the world has an impact on global health, all nations must show solidarity with the rest of the world and follow the WHO’s recommendations in order to aggressively vaccinate their populations, share unused vaccine doses with other countries, and continue to follow physical risk mitigation measures in order to complement worldwide vaccination efforts
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) a pandemic on 11 March 2020 [1,2]. Since PA is a safe, effective, and simple nonpharmacological approach for improving health and wellness [19,20,21], it is imperative that the potential benefits of PA for women during the COVID-19 pandemic are examined and described. PA might have numerous benefits for women during the COVID-19 pandemic In this era of COVID-19, even with vaccines and therapeutics, some physical risk mitigation measures (distancing, masking, hygiene, and self-isolation when sick) are likely to be necessary until COVID-19 community spread becomes insignificant [24,25]. We provide an overview of the mental and physical health benefits of PA for women during the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure 1).
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