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Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy

Severe restrictive measures were implemented globally to limit the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic leading to significant lifestyle changes and impacting on both the physical and the mental health of citizens. Caught by the fear of getting sick, some individuals have adopted behaviors which favored...

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Autores principales: Ceci, Franca, Di Carlo, Francesco, Burkauskas, Julius, Salone, Anatolia, De Luca, Ilaria, Cicconcelli, Dorotea, Giorgetti, Valentina, La Fratta, Irene, Todaro, Antonino, Simonato, Pierluigi, Martinotti, Giovanni, di Giannantonio, Massimo, Corazza, Ornella
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9020546/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35469185
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00815-z
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author Ceci, Franca
Di Carlo, Francesco
Burkauskas, Julius
Salone, Anatolia
De Luca, Ilaria
Cicconcelli, Dorotea
Giorgetti, Valentina
La Fratta, Irene
Todaro, Antonino
Simonato, Pierluigi
Martinotti, Giovanni
di Giannantonio, Massimo
Corazza, Ornella
author_facet Ceci, Franca
Di Carlo, Francesco
Burkauskas, Julius
Salone, Anatolia
De Luca, Ilaria
Cicconcelli, Dorotea
Giorgetti, Valentina
La Fratta, Irene
Todaro, Antonino
Simonato, Pierluigi
Martinotti, Giovanni
di Giannantonio, Massimo
Corazza, Ornella
author_sort Ceci, Franca
collection PubMed
description Severe restrictive measures were implemented globally to limit the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic leading to significant lifestyle changes and impacting on both the physical and the mental health of citizens. Caught by the fear of getting sick, some individuals have adopted behaviors which favored the development of exercise addiction (EA). Our aim was to evaluate physical activity habits and the risk of EA in the general Italian population during phase 1 of the lockdown. The role of appearance anxiety (AA), self-compassion, and use of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs) as predictors of EA development were investigated. A comparison between physically active subjects with the inactive ones was also included. Between April and May 2020, an online survey was conducted across Italy. Nine hundred thirty-six answers were collected. The rate of EA in the physically active sample (782 subjects) was 4.1%. The physically active group showed higher SCS scores and a greater use of PIEDs. Of the physically active participants, 84.2% reported variations in their fitness routine. Perceived benefit of exercising resulted significantly higher in those with EA. Subjects with EA reported stronger motivation in engaging in physical activity as for “physical wellness,” “psychological well-being,” and “sexual attractiveness and confidence in relationship.” A higher level of AA, a lower level of self-compassion, and a higher perceived benefit of exercising during lockdown were all significant predictors for the presence of EA. Our findings suggest that the fear of getting sick from Covid-19, combined with radical changes in the lifestyles induced by the lockdown and individual personological characteristics, can favor the development of EA and related phenomena in the general population.
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spelling pubmed-90205462022-04-21 Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy Ceci, Franca Di Carlo, Francesco Burkauskas, Julius Salone, Anatolia De Luca, Ilaria Cicconcelli, Dorotea Giorgetti, Valentina La Fratta, Irene Todaro, Antonino Simonato, Pierluigi Martinotti, Giovanni di Giannantonio, Massimo Corazza, Ornella Int J Ment Health Addict Original Article Severe restrictive measures were implemented globally to limit the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic leading to significant lifestyle changes and impacting on both the physical and the mental health of citizens. Caught by the fear of getting sick, some individuals have adopted behaviors which favored the development of exercise addiction (EA). Our aim was to evaluate physical activity habits and the risk of EA in the general Italian population during phase 1 of the lockdown. The role of appearance anxiety (AA), self-compassion, and use of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs) as predictors of EA development were investigated. A comparison between physically active subjects with the inactive ones was also included. Between April and May 2020, an online survey was conducted across Italy. Nine hundred thirty-six answers were collected. The rate of EA in the physically active sample (782 subjects) was 4.1%. The physically active group showed higher SCS scores and a greater use of PIEDs. Of the physically active participants, 84.2% reported variations in their fitness routine. Perceived benefit of exercising resulted significantly higher in those with EA. Subjects with EA reported stronger motivation in engaging in physical activity as for “physical wellness,” “psychological well-being,” and “sexual attractiveness and confidence in relationship.” A higher level of AA, a lower level of self-compassion, and a higher perceived benefit of exercising during lockdown were all significant predictors for the presence of EA. Our findings suggest that the fear of getting sick from Covid-19, combined with radical changes in the lifestyles induced by the lockdown and individual personological characteristics, can favor the development of EA and related phenomena in the general population. Springer US 2022-04-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9020546/ /pubmed/35469185 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00815-z Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Article
Ceci, Franca
Di Carlo, Francesco
Burkauskas, Julius
Salone, Anatolia
De Luca, Ilaria
Cicconcelli, Dorotea
Giorgetti, Valentina
La Fratta, Irene
Todaro, Antonino
Simonato, Pierluigi
Martinotti, Giovanni
di Giannantonio, Massimo
Corazza, Ornella
Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
title Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_full Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_fullStr Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_full_unstemmed Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_short Physical Activity and Exercise Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_sort physical activity and exercise addiction during the covid-19 pandemic in italy
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9020546/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35469185
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00815-z
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