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. 2022 Aug 14;19(16):10027.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191610027.

Is Working from Home during COVID-19 Associated with Increased Sports Participation? Contexts of Sports, Sports Location and Socioeconomic Inequality

Malou Grubben  1 , Sara Wiertsema  1 , Remco Hoekman  1   2 , Gerbert Kraaykamp  1
Affiliations

Is Working from Home during COVID-19 Associated with Increased Sports Participation? Contexts of Sports, Sports Location and Socioeconomic Inequality

Malou Grubben et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Previous research has focused mainly on the association between working from home (WFH) and physical activity, establishing that physical activity diminished among people WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our study, we investigated the association between WFH and specifically sports participation (competitive and non-competitive). We theorized that WFH would offer individuals additional opportunities to practice sports during the pandemic. Governmental restrictions at the time constrained opportunities to participate in organized sports and in sports with others. We, therefore, expected sports participation during the pandemic to be largely restricted to individual participation and participation at home or in the public space. By means of descriptive analyses and adjusted analyses of variance (n = 1506), we found positive associations between WFH and various aspects of sports participation. Lower-educated individuals, in particular, seem to be benefiting from WFH related to their sports participation in the public space, and economically deprived individuals also seem to be benefiting from WFH in regard to their sports participation at home. Our findings extend the literature on physical activity and sports participation among people who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic while offering implications for policies on WFH, sports opportunities in public space and physical activity-friendly environments.

Keywords: corona crisis; health behavior; remote working; sports participation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Visualization of the relationship between WFH and sporting behavior, differentiated by educational level for (a) sports participation and (b) participation in the public space.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Visualization of the relationship between WFH and sporting behavior, differentiated by economic deprivation for (a) individual sports participation, (b) participation at home and (c) participation in the public space.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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