{"title":"The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity and screen time among Canadian youth.","authors":"Rachel C Colley, Travis J Saunders","doi":"10.25318/82-003-x202301000001-eng","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in health behaviours, including participation in physical activity and screen time. The purpose of this paper is to examine trends in physical activity and screen time among Canadian youth from January 2018 to February 2022.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The Canadian Community Health Survey asks Canadian youth (aged 12 to 17 years) to report the time they spend active by domain: recreation, transportation, school and household. Survey respondents are also asked to report their screen time on school days and non-school days. The present analysis compares the physical activity from four cross-sectional samples collected during 2018 (January to December; n=3,952), January to March 2020 (n=911), September to December 2020 (n=1,573), and January 2021 to February 2022 (n=3,501). Screen time is compared between 2018 and 2021/2022. Sub-annual descriptive analyses examine how physical activity and screen time varied within and between these years.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Before the COVID-19 pandemic, half of Canadian youth met the physical activity recommendation (2018: 49.6%; January to March 2020: 53.7%). The percentage meeting the recommendation dropped in the first year of the pandemic (September to December 2020: 37.3%) and recovered slightly in 2021 (43.8%). From 2018 to 2021, total physical activity dropped by 8.3 minutes per day (58.1 minutes per week) among girls and by 2.1 minutes per day (14.7 minutes per week) among boys. The percentage of youth meeting the screen time recommendation on school days dropped from 40.7% in 2018 to 29.1% in 2021 and from 21.4% in 2018 to 13.2% in 2021 on non-school days.</p><p><strong>Interpretation: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic had a detrimental impact on the physical activity and screen time of youth, in particular among girls. This analysis provides an update on how the pandemic has continued to affect the physical activity and screen habits of youth in 2020, 2021, and early 2022.</p>","PeriodicalId":49196,"journal":{"name":"Health Reports","volume":"34 10","pages":"3-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Reports","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202301000001-eng","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in health behaviours, including participation in physical activity and screen time. The purpose of this paper is to examine trends in physical activity and screen time among Canadian youth from January 2018 to February 2022.
Methods: The Canadian Community Health Survey asks Canadian youth (aged 12 to 17 years) to report the time they spend active by domain: recreation, transportation, school and household. Survey respondents are also asked to report their screen time on school days and non-school days. The present analysis compares the physical activity from four cross-sectional samples collected during 2018 (January to December; n=3,952), January to March 2020 (n=911), September to December 2020 (n=1,573), and January 2021 to February 2022 (n=3,501). Screen time is compared between 2018 and 2021/2022. Sub-annual descriptive analyses examine how physical activity and screen time varied within and between these years.
Results: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, half of Canadian youth met the physical activity recommendation (2018: 49.6%; January to March 2020: 53.7%). The percentage meeting the recommendation dropped in the first year of the pandemic (September to December 2020: 37.3%) and recovered slightly in 2021 (43.8%). From 2018 to 2021, total physical activity dropped by 8.3 minutes per day (58.1 minutes per week) among girls and by 2.1 minutes per day (14.7 minutes per week) among boys. The percentage of youth meeting the screen time recommendation on school days dropped from 40.7% in 2018 to 29.1% in 2021 and from 21.4% in 2018 to 13.2% in 2021 on non-school days.
Interpretation: The COVID-19 pandemic had a detrimental impact on the physical activity and screen time of youth, in particular among girls. This analysis provides an update on how the pandemic has continued to affect the physical activity and screen habits of youth in 2020, 2021, and early 2022.
Health ReportsPUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-
CiteScore
7.30
自引率
4.00%
发文量
28
期刊介绍:
Health Reports publishes original research on diverse topics related to understanding and improving the health of populations and the delivery of health care. We publish studies based on analyses of Canadian national/provincial representative surveys or Canadian national/provincial administrative databases, as well as results of international comparative health research. Health Reports encourages the sharing of methodological information among those engaged in the analysis of health surveys or administrative databases. Use of the most current data available is advised for all submissions.