Dataset Information

COVID-19: Assessing the impact of lockdown on recreational athletes

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in associated lockdown restrictions for individuals across England, including the postponement of all recreational sporting provisions. The beneficial effects of regular physical activity are well established yet to the authors' knowledge, no research addresses the cancellation of all recreational provisions. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this study assessed the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on recreational sports players, what alternative exercise methods have been sought and how players feel about returning to their sport.

Method

An online survey was distributed across England for six-weeks commencing in May 2020. A questionnaire explored differences in the impact of COVID-19 restrictions between sex, winter/summer/year-round sports, team/individual sports, age, and resilience groups. The use of alternative exercise methods, coping strategies and feelings about returning to sport were also investigated. Responses were gathered from 2023 adults whose recreational sport had been cancelled by COVID-19. All completed questionnaires (n = 1213) were taken for analysis (mean age = 49.41 years, SD = 17.165, 55.2% female).

Results

Quantitative findings showed the negative impact of COVID-19 restrictions was greater for females, those involved in winter and team sports, those aged 18–39 and low-resilient copers (p < .05). No significant differences were found between individuals that had had COVID-19 or were considered vulnerable by government guidelines. Acceptance was the most common coping strategy. The average number of days per week that participants exercised significantly increased during lockdown, with significant increases also seen in the use of online workouts, fitness apps and home-gym exercise. Qualitative findings suggested that participants are looking forward to the social and physical benefits of recreational activity restarting yet are concerned about the logistics of returning under social distancing restrictions. Other worries included loss of fitness, spreading (younger age groups) and catching (older age groups) COVID-19 and being in a crowd.

Conclusions

Results highlight what is currently accessible to home-based exercisers and inform the reintroduction of recreational sports clubs. As COVID-19 restrictions look to persist, club representatives should provide accessible home-exercise options and be cautious of participant concerns when considering the return of recreational sport.

SUBMITTER: Martin A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8422081 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The new corona virus infection SARS-CoV2 which was later renamed COVID-19 is a pandemic affecting public health. The fear and the constraints imposed to control the pandemic may correspondingly influence leisure activities, such as birding, which is the practice of observing birds based on visual and acoustic cues. Birders are people who carry out birding observations around the globe and contribute to the massive data collection in citizen science projects. Contrasting to earlier COVID-19 studies, which have concentrated on clinical, pathological, and virological topics, this study focused on the behavioral changes of birders. A total of 4484 questionnaire survey responses from 97 countries were received. The questionnaire had an open-ended style. About 85% of respondents reported that COVID-19 has changed their birding behavior. The most significant change in birdwatchers' behavior was related to the geographic coverage of birding activities, which became more local. People focused mostly on yard birding. In total, 12% of respondents (n = 542 cases) reported having more time for birding, whereas 8% (n = 356 cases) reported having less time for birding. Social interactions decreased since respondents, especially older people, changed their birding behavior toward birding alone or with their spouse. Women reported more often than men that they changed to birding alone or with their spouse, and women also reported more often about canceled fieldtrips or society meetings. Respondents from higher developed countries reported that they spend currently more time for birding, especially for birding alone or with their spouse, and birding at local hotspots. Our study suggests that long lockdowns with strict regulations may severely impact on leisure activities. In addition, a temporal and spatial shift in birding due to the pandemic may influence data quality in citizen science projects. As nature-based recreation will be directed more toward nearby sites, environmental management resources and actions need to be directed to sites that are located near the users, e.g., in urban and suburban areas. The results can be applied with caution to other nature-based recreational activities.

Project description:BackgroundIn response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, several countries adopted measures of social distancing to a different degree. For many countries, after successfully curbing the initial wave, lockdown measures were gradually lifted. In Belgium, such relief started on May 4th with phase 1, followed by several subsequent phases over the next few weeks.MethodsWe analysed the expected impact of relaxing stringent lockdown measures taken according to the phased Belgian exit strategy. We developed a stochastic, data-informed, meta-population model that accounts for mixing and mobility of the age-structured population of Belgium. The model is calibrated to daily hospitalization data and is able to reproduce the outbreak at the national level. We consider different scenarios for relieving the lockdown, quantified in terms of relative reductions in pre-pandemic social mixing and mobility. We validate our assumptions by making comparisons with social contact data collected during and after the lockdown.ResultsOur model is able to successfully describe the initial wave of COVID-19 in Belgium and identifies interactions during leisure/other activities as pivotal in the exit strategy. Indeed, we find a smaller impact of school re-openings as compared to restarting leisure activities and re-openings of work places. We also assess the impact of case isolation of new (suspected) infections, and find that it allows re-establishing relatively more social interactions while still ensuring epidemic control. Scenarios predicting a second wave of hospitalizations were not observed, suggesting that the per-contact probability of infection has changed with respect to the pre-lockdown period.ConclusionsContacts during leisure activities are found to be most influential, followed by professional contacts and school contacts, respectively, for an impending second wave of COVID-19. Regular re-assessment of social contacts in the population is therefore crucial to adjust to evolving behavioral changes that can affect epidemic diffusion.