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Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1)

One major impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s lifestyles is the lack of exercise owing to activity restrictions. However, information regarding the way in which physical functions among children decline under these circumstances remains scarce. In this study, we compared the physical funct...

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Autores principales: Ito, Tadashi, Sugiura, Hideshi, Ito, Yuji, Narahara, Sho, Noritake, Koji, Takahashi, Daiki, Natsume, Kentaro, Ochi, Nobuhiko
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9517518/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36141790
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811513
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author Ito, Tadashi
Sugiura, Hideshi
Ito, Yuji
Narahara, Sho
Noritake, Koji
Takahashi, Daiki
Natsume, Kentaro
Ochi, Nobuhiko
author_facet Ito, Tadashi
Sugiura, Hideshi
Ito, Yuji
Narahara, Sho
Noritake, Koji
Takahashi, Daiki
Natsume, Kentaro
Ochi, Nobuhiko
author_sort Ito, Tadashi
collection PubMed
description One major impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s lifestyles is the lack of exercise owing to activity restrictions. However, information regarding the way in which physical functions among children decline under these circumstances remains scarce. In this study, we compared the physical functions and life habits among children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The participants involved 40 children aged between 9–15 years (23 girls and 17 boys) who were examined medically both before and during the pandemic. The compared variables included muscle strength, static and dynamic balance functions, gait speed, body fat percentage, screen and sleep times, quality of life, and physical activity time. During the pandemic, compared to before the pandemic, children had lower levels of dynamic balance functions (p = 0.039), increased body fat percentages (p < 0.0001), longer screen time per day (p = 0.002), and shorter sleep time per day (p < 0.0001). Between the two periods, there were no significant differences in muscle strength, static balance functions, gait speed, quality of life, and physical activity time. The activity restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affect dynamic balance functions, body-fat levels, and life habits among children.
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spelling pubmed-95175182022-09-29 Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1) Ito, Tadashi Sugiura, Hideshi Ito, Yuji Narahara, Sho Noritake, Koji Takahashi, Daiki Natsume, Kentaro Ochi, Nobuhiko Int J Environ Res Public Health Article One major impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s lifestyles is the lack of exercise owing to activity restrictions. However, information regarding the way in which physical functions among children decline under these circumstances remains scarce. In this study, we compared the physical functions and life habits among children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The participants involved 40 children aged between 9–15 years (23 girls and 17 boys) who were examined medically both before and during the pandemic. The compared variables included muscle strength, static and dynamic balance functions, gait speed, body fat percentage, screen and sleep times, quality of life, and physical activity time. During the pandemic, compared to before the pandemic, children had lower levels of dynamic balance functions (p = 0.039), increased body fat percentages (p < 0.0001), longer screen time per day (p = 0.002), and shorter sleep time per day (p < 0.0001). Between the two periods, there were no significant differences in muscle strength, static balance functions, gait speed, quality of life, and physical activity time. The activity restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affect dynamic balance functions, body-fat levels, and life habits among children. MDPI 2022-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9517518/ /pubmed/36141790 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811513 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ito, Tadashi
Sugiura, Hideshi
Ito, Yuji
Narahara, Sho
Noritake, Koji
Takahashi, Daiki
Natsume, Kentaro
Ochi, Nobuhiko
Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1)
title Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1)
title_full Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1)
title_fullStr Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1)
title_full_unstemmed Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1)
title_short Physical Functions among Children before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Longitudinal Observational Study (Stage 1)
title_sort physical functions among children before and during the covid-19 pandemic: a prospective longitudinal observational study (stage 1)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9517518/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36141790
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811513
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