JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and may have inadvertently decreased physical activity for youth. Emerging evidence suggests that school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic could have hastened the inactivity of youth, possibly due to a lack of structure out of school and more access to sedentary activities.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to assess changes in physical activity pre- and post-pandemic related school closure among youth in spring 2020.

Methods:

This study uses a natural quasi-experimental design; youth were enrolled in a physical activity study prior to the enforced lockdown due to the pandemic. Device assessed steps/day, and moderate to vigorous minutes of physical activity (MVPA)/week were measured using a Garmin Vivofit 4 accelerometer over 8 weeks. Multilevel linear regression models were used to compare physical activity variables before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results:

Youth were primarily Hispanic/Latinx (53.3%) and female (53.3%). Daily steps decreased by 51.8% during the closure. Daily MVPA decreased by 54.3%, from a pre-school closure mean of 83.3 minutes/week to a post-school closure mean of 45.2 minutes/week.

Conclusions:

Youth are engaging in roughly half as much physical activity during the school closure as they were prior to the school closure. If additional evidence supports these claims, interventions are needed to support the engagement in physical activity among youth in the Midwest.