ABSTRACT
COVID-19 lockdown, targeted at preventing the spread of coronavirus, had deleterious effects on physical and psychosocial health. This study examined the association between physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), loneliness and quality of sleep of 507 Nigerian adults during the COVID-19 lockdown. Five hundred and seven respondents (aged 18-67 years) from 12 States completed an online survey on RedCap. Questionnaires comprising the Stages of Change scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, International Sedentary Assessment Tool, UCLA Loneliness Questionnaire, Short Form-12 Health Survey, and International Physical Activity Questionnaire were used. Respondents were categorised based on exercise behaviour as non-exercisers, non-regular exercisers, or regular exercisers;and based on age into 18-24, 25-34, 35-44 and > 44 years categories. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. About 33.1% of respondents did not meet moderate-to-vigorous PA levels. The physical component of HRQoL was positively associated with total PA (p = 0.04). Among the non-exercisers, the odds of being regular exercisers during pre-COVID-19 lockdown were significantly higher for the 35-44 (odds ratio [OR] = 3.49;95% CI = 1.44, 8.48, p = 0.01) and > 44 years age groups (OR = 2.98;95% CI: 1.16, 7.62, p = 0.02) relative to 18-24 years age category. During COVID-19 lockdown, > 44 (OR = 3.65;95% CI: 1.47, 9.07, p = 0.005), 35-44 (OR = 6.42;95% CI 2.75, 14.96, p = 0.001) and 25-34 (OR = 2.35;95% CI: 1.15, 4.80, p = 0.02) years age categories had significant higher odds of being regular exercisers compared to the 18-24 years age group. There was a high rate of physical inactivity among Nigerian adults during the COVID-19 lockdown, which was directly influenced by the physical components of HRQoL. Older age was an independent predictor of exercise behaviour before and during the COVID-19 lockdown among Nigerian adults.
ABSTRACT
The study was to assess the knowledge and awareness of COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of lockdown restrictions on training, fitness and personal parameters of Nigerian athletes. This cross-sectional study recruited 578 elite athletes through an online survey using WhatsApp platform. An adapted questionnaire was used to obtain information on awareness, knowledge and impact of COVID-19 on athletes' characteristics. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Alpha level was set at p ≤ 0.05. There was high level of awareness (100%) of COVID-19 pandemic among the respondents. The main source of awareness of COVID-19 was social media (68.4%). Some of the respondents (55.9%) had correct knowledge of COVID-19 causative organism. Age was significantly associated with knowledge about cause (X2 = 85.361;p = 0.002) and spread (X2 = 27.715;p = 0.023) of COVID-19 while gender was significantly associated with knowledge about the spread of the virus (X2 = 4.083;p = 0.043). There were significant differences in physical fitness parameters (p <0.05), eating pattern and body weight measures (p <0.05), and general well-being (p = 0.001). Lockdown had negative impacts on hours of daily training, sleeping and eating patterns, physical fitness elements and the general well-being of the respondents. © 2021 Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecinskiego. All rights reserved.