The Medium-Term Changes in Health-Related Behaviours among Spanish Older People Lifestyles during Covid-19 Lockdown

The aim was to evaluate general changes and investigate the association between diet quality, physical activity (PA), and sedentary time (ST) during COVID-19 lockdown and the subsequent 7-month changes in health-related behaviours and lifestyles in older people.

1092 participants (67-97y) from two Spanish cohorts were included.

Telephone-based questionaries were used to evaluate health-related behaviours and lifestyle. Multinomial logistic regression analyses with diet quality, PA, and ST during lockdown as predictors for health-related behaviours changes post-lockdown were applied.

Diet quality, PA, and ST significantly improved post-lockdown, while physical component score of the SF-12 worsened. Participants with a low diet quality during lockdown had higher worsening of post-lockdown ST and anxiety; whereas those with high diet quality showed less likelihood of remaining abstainers, worsening weight, and improving PA. Lower ST was associated with a higher likelihood of remaining abstainers, and worsening weight and improving social contact; nevertheless, higher ST was linked to improvement in sleep quality. Lower PA was more likely to decrease alcohol consumption, while higher PA showed the opposite. However, PA was more likely to be associated to remain abstainers.

Despite improvements in lifestyle after lockdown, it had health consequences for older people. Particularly, lower ST during lockdown seemed to provide the most medium-term remarkable lifestyle improvements.