Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on physical fitness among college women living in China

Xiaolu Feng; Xinyi Wen; Yangyang Wang; Lili Bai; Hongjun Yu

doi:10.1080/07853890.2023.2235560

Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on physical fitness among college women living in China

Ann Med. 2023 Dec;55(1):2235560. doi: 10.1080/07853890.2023.2235560.

Authors

Xiaolu Feng¹, Xinyi Wen², Yangyang Wang², Lili Bai³, Hongjun Yu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sports Science, College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Department of Physical Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
³ School of Sports Science, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China.

Abstract

Purposes: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on physical fitness among college women living in China and to explore how fitness changed with different physical conditions.

Methods: We performed repeated measures of BMI, 800 m running and sit-up performance assessment on college women from one university in China pre and post the COVID-19 lockdown. A total of 3658 (age 19.15 ± 1.08 yr.) college women who completed the same assessment pre and post the COVID-19 lockdown were included in the analysis. We analyzed the data using one way ANOVA and paired-samples t-test.

Results: Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the result shows a significant increase in BMI by 2.91% (95% CI =0.33, 0.40) and a significant decline in 800 m running and sit-up by 7.97% (95% CI =0.69, 0.77) and 4.91% (95% CI = -0.27, -0.19), respectively. College women in the highest quartile level of physical condition (Quartile 4) had more decreases than college women in the lowest quartile level (Quartile 1). Their BMI level was increased by 3.69% and 0.98% in college women in Quartile 4 and Quartile 1, respectively. Their performance of 800 m running was decreased by 9.32% and 7.37% in college women in Quartile 4 and Quartile 1, respectively. Their performance of sit-up was decreased by 13.88% in college women in Quartile 4 while it increased by 10.91% in college women in Quartile 1, respectively.

Conclusions: The COVID-19 lockdown might increase the BMI level and decrease 800 m running and sit-up performance among college women living in China. The decrease for college women in higher quartile level of physical condition (Quartile 4) were more seriously while college women in lower quartile level of physical condition (Quartile 1) were modest.

Keywords: 800 m running; COVID-19; college women; physical fitness; sit-up.

Plain language summary

This study performed repeated tests on a large sample of 3658 college women before and after the COVID-19 lockdown to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on physical fitness.The COVID-19 lockdown decreased physical fitness (BMI, 800 m running and sit-up performance) among college women living in China.College women in higher level of physical condition at baseline were more seriously affected by the COVID-19 lockdown than college women in lower level of physical condition.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Body Mass Index
COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / prevention & control
China / epidemiology
Communicable Disease Control
Female
Humans
Physical Fitness
Universities
Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant NO. 19ZDA353, 21CTY005, 20BTY004), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant NO. S20230054), Beijing Social Science Foundation of China (21YTA009), and the Tsinghua University “Shuang Gao” Scientific Research Program (2021TSG08208, 2022TSG03205), the Tsinghua Education Reform Project (2021ZY01_01), the Tsinghua Graduated Education Reform Project (202303J039).