Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Sun Exposure of UK Office Workers

The impact of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in April-June 2020 on UV exposure of office workers was assessed using an online survey on time spent outdoors and environmental data for different locations in the UK. Without the need for commuting and with the flexibility of homeworking, weekday time spent outdoors was higher in the 2020 lockdown than in the same period in 2017. The weekday erythema effective radiant exposure was higher in 2020 due to an additional 45 min outdoors in the late afternoon that was not observed in 2017 and high UV levels due to extremely sunny weather in spring. The lockdown did not impact the frequency of time spent outdoors around midday, which was still governed by work commitments, and at the weekends, no difference between 2020 and 2017 was observed. In 2020, responders felt that time outdoors was very important for their health and well-being.

Automated summary

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown in April-June 2020 on UV exposure of office workers in the UK was assessed using online surveys and environmental data. The lockdown led to an increase in weekday outdoor time, especially in the late afternoon, and resulted in higher erythema effective radiant exposure due to additional time spent outdoors and high UV levels. Despite work commitments, the frequency of outdoor time around midday was not affected, and no difference was observed in weekend outdoor activities between 2020 and 2017. Participants in 2020 emphasized the importance of outdoor time for their health and well-being.