More than one in four people in England did less exercise than they would normally in the first lockdown, and didn鈥檛 increase it afterwards. The results from the first study of how physical activity changed beyond lockdown suggests that decreased physical activity could worsen obesity levels in the country.
Efforts were made to encourage exercise during the first lockdown, which took place between March and May 2020. Fitness coach while gyms quickly started offering zoom classes.聽However, a survey of 36,000 people taking part in the found that 29 per cent decreased their physical activity between March and August last year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a sizeable number,鈥� says Andrew Steptoe at UCL. 鈥淸Although] there were stay-at-home orders, people were encouraged to go out and exercise 鈥� but some people didn鈥檛. Some people were frightened of catching covid. Some didn鈥檛 live in the circumstances where they had the opportunity to do this.鈥� Steptoe says he was surprised that people weren鈥檛 more active after restrictions lifted in May.
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, which hasn鈥檛 yet been peer-reviewed, found that 62 per cent of people maintained their old level of physical activity, and just 9 per cent increased it. Steptoe and his colleagues had expected that there might be an urban-rural divide, with people outside towns and cities having more space and therefore exercising more, but that wasn鈥檛 the case. Gender and ethnicity also didn鈥檛 seem to make a difference to how active people were.
However, people who were older, more educated, richer and lived with other people were more likely to be more active. 鈥淥ne of the things I was quite struck by was older people were [more] active compared to young adults aged 18 to 29, which is unusual,鈥� says Steptoe. He suspects that may be partly due to younger people being more reliant on organised sports, which were limited by restrictions, with older people more often walking or jogging on their own. 鈥淭hat social component might be important,鈥� he says.
The team says the decrease in physical activity has immediate and long-term implications for people鈥檚 physical and mental health. Other by Steptoe and his colleagues during the pandemic has found a short-term link between people exercising or taking part in outdoor activities such as gardening one week, and being less anxious the following week. 鈥淭here is definitely an effect on morale and well-being,鈥� he says.
While a few weeks of being less active won鈥檛 make much difference to a person鈥檚 long-term health, Steptoe fears that people 鈥渨ho were active get out of the habit and never start again鈥�. The best antidote to decreased exercise is for people to try to weave it back into their everyday life, he says, such as breaking up sitting time by walking around the house and walking to destinations wherever possible.
There is indicating that a decrease in physical activity during the pandemic is linked to a rise in bone fractures. Naveed Sattar at the University of Glasgow, UK, says he has seen a growing number of patients who are struggling with weight gain during the pandemic and says he is worried that this may cause an epidemic of obesity. 鈥淸Obesity] levels are going to go up even more,鈥� he says. 鈥淥besity is a risk factor for covid-19, so it鈥檚 sad that one of the consequences of the pandemic is even more obesity.鈥�
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