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Short and medium-term effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns on child and parent accelerometer-measured physical activity
Russell Jago1,2,3,4, Ruth Salway5, Danielle House5
1Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Rd, Bristol, BS8 1TZ, UK. Russ.Jago@bristol.ac.uk.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
Background:
- COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns significantly reduced children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).
- Initial post-lockdown data indicated lower activity and higher sedentary time in children, with minimal changes in parental activity.
- The persistence of these changes in children's physical activity patterns required further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's and parents' physical activity levels.
- To determine if the physical activity patterns observed immediately after lockdowns persisted over time.
- To analyze temporal trends in physical activity in relation to COVID-19 outbreaks and public health measures.
Main Methods:
- A natural experiment (Active-6 study) utilized repeated cross-sectional accelerometer data from children (aged 10-11) and parents.
- Data were collected in two waves (Wave 1: June 2021-December 2021; Wave 2: January 2022-July 2022) and compared to pre-COVID-19 data (March 2017-May 2018).
- Linear multilevel models and generalized additive mixed models were used to compare MVPA and sedentary time, analyzing temporal patterns.
Main Results:
- Children's mean MVPA returned to pre-pandemic levels by Wave 2 (January-July 2022), but weekday sedentary time remained elevated.
- Children's MVPA showed seasonal variation, decreasing during winter outbreaks and recovering by May/June 2022.
- Parents' weekend MVPA was higher than pre-pandemic levels, while weekday MVPA and sedentary time were similar.
Conclusions:
- Children's physical activity recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but increased sedentary time persists.
- Parental physical activity, particularly on weekends, remained elevated post-pandemic.
- The findings highlight the precarious nature of physical activity recovery and the need for robust strategies to prevent future disruptions and promote activity in children, as many still do not meet guidelines.
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in marked impacts on children's physical activity, with large reductions in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) reported during lockdowns. Previous evidence showed children's activity levels were lower and sedentary time higher immediately post-COVID lockdown, while there was little change in parental physical activity. We need to know if these patterns persist.
Methods:
Active-6 is a natural experiment using repeated cross-sectional data conducted in two waves. Accelerometer data were collected on 393 children aged 10-11 and their parents from 23 schools in Wave 1 (June 2021-December 2021), and 436 children and parents from 27 schools in Wave 2 (January 2022-July 2022). These were compared to a pre-COVID-19 comparator group (March 2017-May 2018) of 1,296 children and parents in the same schools. Mean minutes of accelerometer-measured MVPA and sedentary time were derived for week- and weekend-days and compared across waves via linear multilevel models. We also analysed the date of data collection as a time series, to explore temporal patterns via generalised additive mixed models.
Results:
There was no difference in children's mean MVPA in Wave 2 (weekdays: -2.3 min; 95% CI: -5.9, 1.3 and weekends: 0.6 min; 95% CI: -3.5, 4.6) when compared to the pre-COVID-19 data. Sedentary time remained higher than pre-pandemic by 13.2 min (95% CI:5.3, 21.1) on weekdays. Differences compared to pre-COVID-19 changed over time, with children's MVPA decreasing over winter, coinciding with COVID-19 outbreaks, and only returning to pre-pandemic levels towards May/June 2022. Parents' sedentary time and weekday MVPA was similar to pre-COVID-19 levels, with MVPA higher than pre-pandemic by 7.7 min (95% CI: 1.4, 14.0) on weekends.
Conclusion:
After an initial drop, children's MVPA returned to pre-pandemic levels by July 2022, while sedentary time remained higher. Parents' MVPA remained higher, especially at weekends. The recovery in physical activity is precarious and potentially susceptible to future COVID-19 outbreaks or changes in provision, and so robust measures to protect against future disruptions are needed. Furthermore, many children are still inactive, with only 41% meeting UK physical activity guidelines, and so there is still a need to increase children's physical activity.
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