Global Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Physical Activity Habits of Competitive Runners: An Analysis of Wearable Device Data.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in government restrictions that altered the lifestyle of people worldwide. Studying the impact of these restrictions on exercise behaviors will improve our understanding of the environmental factors that influence individuals' physical activity (PA). We conducted a retrospective analysis using an stringency index of government pandemic policies developed by Oxford University and digitally-logged PA data from more than 7000 runners collected using a wearable exercise-tracking device to compare the relationship between strictness of lockdowns and exercise habits on a global scale. Additionally, the time-of-day of PA globally, and activity-levels of PA in 14 countries, are compared between the pre-pandemic year of 2019 and the first pandemic year of 2020. We found that during the pandemic year there was a major shift in the time-of-day that runners exercised, with significantly more activity counts logged during standard working hours on workdays (p < 0.001) and fewer activities during the same time frame on weekends (p < 0.001). Of the countries examined, Italy and Spain had among the most strict lockdowns and suffered the largest decreases in activity counts, whereas France experienced a minimal decrease in activity counts despite enacting a strict lockdown with certain allowances. This study suggests that there are several factors affecting PA of dedicated runners, including government policy, workplace policy, and cultural norms.

Association between Working Hours and Anxiety/Depression of Medical Staff during Large-Scale Epidemic Outbreak of COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVE: This present study aimed to investigate the relationship between working hours and anxiety/depression mood of medical staff in China during COVID-19 epidemic. METHODS: The cross-sectional interview study was conducted during the period between February 14th and February 29th, 2020. A total of 291 Chinese medical professionals were recruited from 4 cities and participated in the study. RESULTS: In 291 participants, 116 (40.0%) medical staff experienced anxiety and 151 (51.8%) underwent depressed mood. In male, the level of GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores increased with the elevation of working hours per day (WHPD) (ß=0.579, p=0.003 and ß=0.943; p=0.001) respectively. In female, nonlinear relationship mode was demonstrated. The levels of GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores increased with the elevation of working hours when it was above 5 hours (ß=1.432; p<0.001 and ß=1.177; p<0.001), but it did not have a significant association with WHPD when it was less than 5 (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 epidemic, we found a strong correlation between the psychological mood and WHPD. The correlation followed different modes in male and female medical workers. Enforcing an upper time limit of WHPD may help decrease the risk of pandemic-related psychological problems in medical workers.