Changes in physical activity during the COVID-19 lockdown based on the sociodemographic profile of 5569 students and academic staff of Austrian universities

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions/lockdowns have influenced the health and lifestyle behaviour of university students and staff, particularly their physical activity (PA) habits. However, the association between the direction of PA changes and sociodemographic characteristics has not been studied. This nationwide study was conducted in Austrian colleges/universities and aimed to identify the magnitude and direction of changes in PA levels during the COVID-19 restrictions and compare participants who had unchanged vs decreased vs increased PA based on sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, body mass index, study level, living area, nationality and Austrian regions).Study design: This was a cross-sectional study to measure the association between the explanatory variable and outcome measures.Methods: A total number of 4528 students (mean age 24.9 years) and 1041 academic staff (mean age 46.4 years) participated in an online survey and provided self-reported data on sociodemographic characteristics and PA change during the pandemic.Results: A total of 41.3% of students and 37.5% of academic staff reported a decrease in PA level, whereas PA levels increased in 36.3% and 27.9%, respectively. In students, all sociodemographic variables (including sex, age, body mass index, study level, living area, nationality and Austrian regions) were significantly associated with the direction of PA changes (P < 0.05). Living area and Austrian region were found to be significant indicators of direction of PA changes in academic staff (P < 0.05).Conclusions: These findings suggest that the inconsistency of previous studies in PA change during the pandemic may at least partly be explained by differences in the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Royal Society for Public Health. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions have affected the physical activity habits of university students and staff. This nationwide study in Austrian universities aimed to identify the changes in physical activity levels during the pandemic and examine the association with sociodemographic characteristics. The findings suggest that sociodemographic factors may contribute to the inconsistency in previous studies on physical activity changes during the pandemic.