Joint prevalence of physical activity and sitting time during COVID-19 among US adults in April 2020

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered much of US life with shifts to working-from-home and social distancing changing day-to-day behavior. We aimed to determine the self-reported prevalence of meeting US physical activity guidelines, stratified by sitting time during the early lockdown phase of COVID-19 in US adults. We conducted two cross-sectional internet-based studies April 3rd-May 4th, 2020 in convenience samples of US adults. Participants self-reported daily sitting time and weekly moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) via questions from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. A total of 5036 US adults (65.3% women, 30.2% with chronic conditions) provided complete physical activity and sitting time data (80.3% of total). Overall, 42.6% of participants reported sitting for > 8 h/day (95% CI: 41.2%-44.0%) and 72.5% (71.2%-73.7%) reported being either sufficiently (150-300 MVPA minutes) or highly active (>300 min). The greatest proportion of people self-reported being highly active and sitting for > 8 h/day (24.0%; 22.8%-25.2%), followed by being highly active and sitting for 6-8 h/day (20.9%; 19.8%-22.1%). Sitting and activity appeared similar between sexes, while there was evidence of some age differences. For example, more young adults (ages 18-34) appeared to self-report being inactive and more appeared to sit for > 8 h/day compared to older adults. High sitting time was reported by US adults (>40% sitting > 8 h/day) during April 2020. However, high levels of physical activity (>70% meeting guidelines) were also reported. Since physical activity cannot eliminate the negative health effects of sitting, maintaining activity and limiting sitting during periods of large workplace and societal shifts is encouraged.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Exercise; Pandemic; Sedentary behavior; US guidelines.

Fig. 1

Prevalence of Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines Stratified by Daily Sitting Time among US Adults During Early COVID-19 Lockdowns, April 3rd-May 4th, 2020. Footnotes: Data represent percentage of US adults who reported each joint category of daily sitting time and total daily physical activity. 95% confidence intervals are represented by error bars. Abbreviation: COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019.