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Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study

During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries took several restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus. In the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, primary schools in Slovenia were closed for a period long time (from October 19th 2020 until January 18th 2021 when they were partially reopened for 6–...

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Autores principales: Planinšec, Jurij, Matejek, Črtomir, Pišot, Saša, Pišot, Rado, Šimunič, Boštjan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35359773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.843448
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author Planinšec, Jurij
Matejek, Črtomir
Pišot, Saša
Pišot, Rado
Šimunič, Boštjan
author_facet Planinšec, Jurij
Matejek, Črtomir
Pišot, Saša
Pišot, Rado
Šimunič, Boštjan
author_sort Planinšec, Jurij
collection PubMed
description During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries took several restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus. In the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, primary schools in Slovenia were closed for a period long time (from October 19th 2020 until January 18th 2021 when they were partially reopened for 6–9 year olds until February 15th 2021 when they were reopened for all children) and organized sport activities for children and adolescents under the age of 15 was not allowed during this period. The aim of the study was to examine how these restrictions were reflected in the amount of different forms of physical activity (PA) of 6–12-year old children (N = 3,936). Data were collected using an online questionnaire (International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form) comparing different forms of PA before (BEFORE) and during (DURING) remote schooling. The results show that there has been a decline in children's PA DURING, specifically, only 4.3% of children had their physical education ≥ 45 min (or 77.7% ≤ 30 min), as is the usual duration in Slovenia. There was also a remarkable decline in extracurricular sports activities (p < 0.001), which BEFORE had been participated by 72.2% of children, while DURING remote schooling, as many as 83.5% of children did not participate these activities. 69.7% of children participated in organized sports in clubs at least once a week, while DURING remote schooling, as many as 88.1% (p < 0.001) did not participate in such form of activities. Furthermore, the time spent exercising in moderate to vigorous PA also decreased (BEFORE 8.2% vs. DURING 24.9%; p < 0.001). We found that during lockdown there has been an alarming decrease in the frequency and duration of organized PA at school and at sports clubs. These findings are a good starting point for designing (developing) an effective strategy for promoting health-enhancing PA of children in the event of a future lockdown or similar situations. The strategy should focus on the appropriate implementation of PA curriculum and motivate young people to participate regularly in extracurricular organized and non-organized activities.
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spelling pubmed-89604342022-03-30 Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study Planinšec, Jurij Matejek, Črtomir Pišot, Saša Pišot, Rado Šimunič, Boštjan Front Public Health Public Health During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries took several restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus. In the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, primary schools in Slovenia were closed for a period long time (from October 19th 2020 until January 18th 2021 when they were partially reopened for 6–9 year olds until February 15th 2021 when they were reopened for all children) and organized sport activities for children and adolescents under the age of 15 was not allowed during this period. The aim of the study was to examine how these restrictions were reflected in the amount of different forms of physical activity (PA) of 6–12-year old children (N = 3,936). Data were collected using an online questionnaire (International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form) comparing different forms of PA before (BEFORE) and during (DURING) remote schooling. The results show that there has been a decline in children's PA DURING, specifically, only 4.3% of children had their physical education ≥ 45 min (or 77.7% ≤ 30 min), as is the usual duration in Slovenia. There was also a remarkable decline in extracurricular sports activities (p < 0.001), which BEFORE had been participated by 72.2% of children, while DURING remote schooling, as many as 83.5% of children did not participate these activities. 69.7% of children participated in organized sports in clubs at least once a week, while DURING remote schooling, as many as 88.1% (p < 0.001) did not participate in such form of activities. Furthermore, the time spent exercising in moderate to vigorous PA also decreased (BEFORE 8.2% vs. DURING 24.9%; p < 0.001). We found that during lockdown there has been an alarming decrease in the frequency and duration of organized PA at school and at sports clubs. These findings are a good starting point for designing (developing) an effective strategy for promoting health-enhancing PA of children in the event of a future lockdown or similar situations. The strategy should focus on the appropriate implementation of PA curriculum and motivate young people to participate regularly in extracurricular organized and non-organized activities. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8960434/ /pubmed/35359773 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.843448 Text en Copyright © 2022 Planinšec, Matejek, Pišot, Pišot and Šimunič. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Planinšec, Jurij
Matejek, Črtomir
Pišot, Saša
Pišot, Rado
Šimunič, Boštjan
Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study
title Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study
title_full Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study
title_fullStr Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study
title_full_unstemmed Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study
title_short Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Children Physical Activity—A Slovenian Study
title_sort consequences of covid-19 lockdown restrictions on children physical activity—a slovenian study
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35359773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.843448
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