Trail use and recreational physical activity behavior of trail users and non-users during COVID-19 restrictions in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is an important health behavior that was impacted for many by the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In many places, indoor recreational facilities were required to close; however, many outdoor spaces like trails were available for recreational use. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a mixed-use trail before, during, and after COVID-19 restrictions in a large Colorado city and explore if recreational PA behavior differed between trail users and non-users during those periods. Trail user counts on a mixed-use trail were extracted for 2019 and 2020 from continuous-count data. Trail use habits and recreational PA behavior from before, during, and after restrictions were collected via a retrospective internet survey (N=183). Minutes per week of walking, moderate-to-vigorous PA and total PA were calculated from survey responses. Trail use data were analyzed with a two-way ANOVA and PA data were analyzed with a two-way repeated measures ANOVA. Trail use (average count/day) during COVID-19 restrictions was greater than before by 178 users and after by 96 users. During restrictions, trail users reported 153.5 more minutes of total PA per week than non-users. These results suggest the importance of maintaining accessible outdoor infrastructure for promoting positive PA behaviors in general, and especially in a pandemic situation.