Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Demographics and Health History
2.2. COVID-19-Related Public Health Restrictions
- Self-Isolation: For people who actually have the virus or suspect they may be infected. People who have been infected with the virus may be asked to self-isolate at home if they have no symptoms or are only mildly ill.
- Quarantine: For those who may have been exposed to the virus. They are asked to stay at home. Some people may choose to be asked to self-quarantine, meaning they do it voluntarily because they think they may have been exposed or they are being cautious.
- Shelter-in-place: People that are being asked to stay at home as much as possible, meaning they shouldn’t be out unless getting food, gas, or other essentials, or for medical reasons.
- Stay-at-home order: Residents can still go out for essential needs as long as they are practicing social distancing and “common sense”.
- Social distancing: means remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 m) from others when possible.
2.3. COVID-19-Related Health Behaviors and Change
2.4. Mental Health
2.5. Statistical Analysis
3.1. Participant Characteristics
3.2. Change in Physical Activity, Sitting Time, and Screen Time
3.3. Associations between Changes in Behavior, COVID-19 Public Health Restrictions, and Mental Health
Strengths and Limitations
Conflicts of Interest
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|Characteristic||N (%) or Mean ± SD|
|Race (white)||2848 (93.10)|
|BMI||26.84 ± 5.64|
|Underweight (BMI < 18.5)||53 (1.74)|
|Normal (BMI 18.5–25)||1281 (41.97)|
|Overweight (BMI 25–30)||990 (32.44)|
|Obese (BMI > 30)||728 (23.85)|
|Married/in a relationship||2070 (67.67)|
|Never married||711 (23.24)|
|Up to high school graduate||56 (1.83)|
|Up to college graduate||1656 (54.14)|
|Graduate degree||1340 (43.81)|
|Depression||Anxiety||Loneliness||Stress||Social Network||Positive Mental Health|
|Adjusted R2||p-Value||Adjusted R2||p-Value||Adjusted R2||p-Value||Adjusted R2||p-Value||Adjusted R2||p-Value||Adjusted R2||p-Value|
|Goodness of Fit||0.268||<0.0001||0.219||<0.0001||0.168||<0.0001||0.202||<0.0001||0.046||<0.0001||0.255||<0.0001|
|n||b (SE)||p-Value||b (SE)||p-Value||b (SE)||p-Value||b (SE)||p-Value||b (SE)||p-Value||b (SE)||p-Value|
|Increased||152||−0.505 (0.645)||0.434||0.066 (0.677)||0.923||0.001 (0.136)||0.996||−0.133 (0.244)||0.585||0.305 (0.222)||0.169||0.189 (0.345)||0.585|
|Decreased||563||1.960 (0.417)||<0.001||0.596 (0.411)||0.148||0.340 (0.096)||<0.001||0.522 (0.155)||<0.001||−0.269 (0.149)||0.072||−1.010 (0.230)||<0.001|
|Maintained low||1539||0.629 (0.318)||0.048||0.248 (0.320)||0.439||0.078 (0.075)||0.302||0.377 (0.124)||0.002||−0.389 (0.119)||0.001||−0.629 (0.182)||<0.001|
|Decreased||85||0.587 (0.972)||0.546||1.497 (0.944)||0.113||−0.067 (0.197)||0.728||−0.015 (0.329)||0.964||0.074 (0.273)||0.786||−0.122 (0.505)||0.809|
|Increased||582||0.918 (0.441)||0.037||0.946 (0.445)||0.034||0.195 (0.097)||0.045||0.253 (0.154)||0.102||−0.163 (0.149)||0.275||−0.673 (0.234)||0.005|
|Maintained high||1344||−0.199 (0.348)||0.566||−0.064 (0.344)||0.852||0.046 (0.078)||0.554||−0.068 (0.131)||0.604||−0.040 (0.126)||0.750||−0.036 (0.192)||0.853|
|Decreased||45||−0.623 (1.095)||0.569||0.345 (1.203)||0.774||−0.495 (0.198)||0.013||−0.261 (0.468)||0.577||0.762 (0.393)||0.052||0.412 (0.641)||0.520|
|Increased||562||1.924 (0.441)||<0.001||1.341 (0.454)||0.003||0.340 (0.095)||<0.001||0.590 (0.154)||<0.001||−0.069 (0.145)||0.632||−0.920 (0.239)||<0.001|
|Maintained high||933||0.375 (0.392)||0.339||0.474 (0.375)||0.206||0.146 (0.085)||0.087||0.126 (0.137)||0.361||−0.156 (0.133)||0.243||−0.451 (0.202)||0.026|
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Meyer, J.; McDowell, C.; Lansing, J.; Brower, C.; Smith, L.; Tully, M.; Herring, M. Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 6469. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186469
Meyer J, McDowell C, Lansing J, Brower C, Smith L, Tully M, Herring M. Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(18):6469. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186469Chicago/Turabian Style
Meyer, Jacob, Cillian McDowell, Jeni Lansing, Cassandra Brower, Lee Smith, Mark Tully, and Matthew Herring. 2020. "Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 18: 6469. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186469