Physical Activity Levels and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preliminary Results of a Comparative Study between Convenience Samples from Brazil and Switzerland

It has been suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic impaired people's moods and general levels of physical activity, but the way in which each country is coping with the situation may result in different outcomes. The aim of the present study was to compare the mental health and physical activity...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) Vol. 57; no. 1; p. 48
Main Authors:	Puccinelli, Paulo J, Costa, Taline S, Seffrin, Aldo, de Lira, Claudio A B, Vancini, Rodrigo L, Knechtle, Beat, Nikolaidis, Pantelis T, Andrade, Marilia S
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Switzerland MDPI 08-01-2021 MDPI AG
Subjects:	Adult Aged Aged, 80 and over Anxiety - epidemiology Brazil - epidemiology COVID-19 COVID-19 - epidemiology COVID-19 - psychology depression Depression - epidemiology Exercise Female Humans Male Mental Disorders - epidemiology Mental Health - statistics & numerical data Middle Aged mood state pandemic physical exercise Quarantine - psychology Quarantine - statistics & numerical data social distancing Socioeconomic Factors Surveys and Questionnaires Switzerland - epidemiology Brazil Switzerland COVID-19 mood state anxiety depression pandemic physical exercise social distancing
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Summary:	It has been suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic impaired people's moods and general levels of physical activity, but the way in which each country is coping with the situation may result in different outcomes. The aim of the present study was to compare the mental health and physical activity levels between residents of Brazil and Switzerland during the social distancing period associated with COVID-19 pandemic. A self-administered questionnaire aiming to assess personal, quarantine, physical activity, and mood state disorders data was answered by 114 participants (57 from each country) of both sexes. Swiss participants presented a higher frequency of people (47.4%) not abiding by social distancing measures compared to Brazilian participants (1.8%; < 0.001, effect size = 0.56). There were no significant differences between the participants from the two countries regarding physical activity levels ( = 0.09). The Swiss presented a higher frequency (78.9%) of people without symptoms of depression compared to Brazilians (31.6%; < 0.001, effect size = 0.48). The Swiss also presented a higher frequency (77.2%) of people without symptoms of anxiety compared to Brazilians (35.1%; < 0.001, effect size = 0.43). There was a significant association between the restriction level and depression symptoms ( = 0.01, effect size = 0.25) but not with anxiety symptoms ( = 0.21, effect size = 0.16). According to the preliminary results, Brazilians presented a much higher frequency of depression and anxiety symptoms, which can be explained by characteristics other than the restriction level.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	1648-9144 1010-660X 1648-9144
DOI:	10.3390/medicina57010048