On 23rd March 2020, the UK government released self-isolation/social distancing guidance to reduce the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The influence such guidance has on sexual activity is not ...known.
To investigate levels and correlates of sexual activity during COVID-19 self-isolation/social distancing in a sample of the UK public.
This paper presents preplanned interim analyses of data from a cross-sectional epidemiological study, administered through an online survey.
Sexual activity was measured using the following question: "On average after self-isolating how many times have you engaged in sexual activity weekly?" Demographic and clinical data were collected, including sex, age, marital status, employment, annual household income, region, current smoking status, current alcohol consumption, number of chronic physical conditions, number of chronic psychiatric conditions, any physical symptom experienced during self-isolation, and number of days of self-isolation/social distancing. The association between several factors (independent variables) and sexual activity (dependent variable) was studied using a multivariable logistic regression model.
868 individuals were included in this study. There were 63.1% of women, and 21.8% of adults who were aged between 25 and 34 years. During self-isolation/social distancing, 39.9% of the population reported engaging in sexual activity at least once per week. Variables significantly associated with sexual activity (dependent variable) were being male, a younger age, being married or in a domestic partnership, consuming alcohol, and a higher number of days of self-isolation/social distancing.
In this sample of 868 UK adults self-isolating owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of sexual activity was lower than 40%. Those reporting particularly low levels of sexual activity included females, older adults, those not married, and those who abstain from alcohol consumption.
This is the first study to investigate sexual activity during the UK COVID-19 self-isolation/social distancing. Participants were asked to self-report their sexual activity potentially introducing self-reporting bias into the findings. Second, analyses were cross-sectional and thus it is not possible to determine trajectories of sexual activity during the current pandemic.
Interventions to promote health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic should consider positive sexual health messages in mitigating the detrimental health consequences in relation to self-isolation/social distancing and should target those with the lowest levels of sexual activity. Jacob L, Smith L, Butler L, et al. Challenges in the Practice of Sexual Medicine in the Time of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. J Sex Med 2020;17:1229-1236.
As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, different measures have been implemented by governments from each affected country. Such measures usually involve restrictions on the movement of citizens, ...and have had a profound effect on usual activities and timetables. As a result of school closures and strict restrictions regarding going outside home, children have been one of the most disadvantaged population groups during the lockdown period. We therefore aimed to investigate potential health risk behaviors amongst isolated pre-school and school-aged children. We retrieved relevant articles from MEDLINE, Web of Science, PsycInfo, and Scopus databases to describe identified health-related behaviors (i.e. screen exposure, environmental influence, physical activity and fitness, sedentariness, sleep patterns, eating habits, psychological response, body composition, and injuries) in relation to social isolation and social deprivation of children without previous illness or conditions. This review depicts the potential health-related behaviors according to related literature, and put the focus on future short and long-term sequels of social isolation. Socio-affective complications and insufficient physical activity are underscored as two of the main concerns, particularly among socio-economic deprived children. Both issues could be effectively addressed with either adequate parental or community guidance.
•Social isolation may worsen several health-related behaviors.•Socioeconomic issues could either exacerbate or mitigate social isolation effects.•Socio-affective complications might be derived from prolonged COVID-19 lockdown.•Insufficient physical activity and too much screen exposure could be among the main consequences of COVID-19 lockdown.
•More than one in six UK adults increased their alcohol consumption during lockdown.•Increased alcohol consumption was associated with poor overall mental health.•These findings highlight the ...importance of planning targeted support.
The aim was to examine the correlates of increased alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions that were implemented in a sample of UK adults.
This paper presents analyses of data from a cross-sectional study. Adults aged 18 years and over, residing in the UK and self-isolating from others outside their own household were eligible to participate. Participants reported increase or no increase in their level of alcohol consumption from before to during lockdown, as well as symptoms of anxiety, depression and mental wellbeing. Socio-demographic characteristics were compared between adults with and without reported increased alcohol consumption. The associations between reported increased alcohol consumption and mental health outcomes were investigated using logistic and linear regression analyses.
691 adults (61.1 % women; 48.8 % aged 35−64 years) were included in the analysis. Of these, 17 % reported increased alcohol consumption after lockdown. A higher proportion of 18−34-year olds reported increased alcohol consumption compared to older groups. The prevalence of poor overall mental health was significantly higher in individuals with increased alcohol consumption (vs. no increase) (45.4 % versus 32.7 %; p-value = 0.01). There was a significant association between increased alcohol consumption and poor overall mental health (OR = 1.64; 95 % CI = 1.01, 2.66), depressive symptoms (unstandardized beta = 2.93; 95 % CI = 0.91, 4.95) and mental wellbeing (unstandardized beta=-1.38; 95 % CI=-2.38, -0.39).
More than one in six UK adults increased their alcohol consumption during lockdown and a higher proportion of these were younger adults. Increased alcohol consumption was independently associated with poor overall mental health, increased depressive symptoms and lower mental wellbeing. These findings highlight the importance of planning targeted support as we emerge from lockdown and plan for potential second and subsequent waves.
To systematically review the evidence examining effects of walking interventions on pain and self-reported function in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain.
Six electronic databases ...(MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, PEDro, Sport Discus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) were searched from January 1980 to March 2014.
Randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials in adults with chronic low back pain, osteoarthritis, or fibromyalgia comparing walking interventions to a nonexercise or nonwalking exercise control group.
Data were independently extracted using a standardized form. Methodological quality was assessed using the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force system.
Twenty-six studies (2384 participants) were included, and suitable data from 17 studies were pooled for meta-analysis, with a random effects model used to calculate between-group mean differences and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Data were analyzed according to the duration of follow-up (short-term, ≤8wk postrandomization; medium-term, >2mo to 12mo; long-term, >12mo). Interventions were associated with small to moderate improvements in pain at short-term (mean difference , -5.31; 95% CI, -8.06 to -2.56) and medium-term (mean difference, -7.92; 95% CI, -12.37 to -3.48) follow-up. Improvements in function were observed at short-term (mean difference, -6.47; 95% CI, -12.00 to -0.95), medium-term (mean difference, -9.31; 95% CI, -14.00 to -4.61), and long-term (mean difference, -5.22; 95% CI, -7.21 to -3.23) follow-up.
Evidence of fair methodological quality suggests that walking is associated with significant improvements in outcome compared with control interventions but longer-term effectiveness is uncertain. With the use of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force system, walking can be recommended as an effective form of exercise or activity for individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain but should be supplemented with strategies aimed at maintaining participation. Further work is required for examining effects on important health-related outcomes in this population in robustly designed studies.
Older adults and special populations (living with disability and/or chronic illness that may limit mobility and/or physical endurance) can benefit from practicing a more physically active lifestyle, ...typically by increasing ambulatory activity. Step counting devices (accelerometers and pedometers) offer an opportunity to monitor daily ambulatory activity; however, an appropriate translation of public health guidelines in terms of steps/day is unknown. Therefore this review was conducted to translate public health recommendations in terms of steps/day. Normative data indicates that 1) healthy older adults average 2,000-9,000 steps/day, and 2) special populations average 1,200-8,800 steps/day. Pedometer-based interventions in older adults and special populations elicit a weighted increase of approximately 775 steps/day (or an effect size of 0.26) and 2,215 steps/day (or an effect size of 0.67), respectively. There is no evidence to inform a moderate intensity cadence (i.e., steps/minute) in older adults at this time. However, using the adult cadence of 100 steps/minute to demark the lower end of an absolutely-defined moderate intensity (i.e., 3 METs), and multiplying this by 30 minutes produces a reasonable heuristic (i.e., guiding) value of 3,000 steps. However, this cadence may be unattainable in some frail/diseased populations. Regardless, to truly translate public health guidelines, these steps should be taken over and above activities performed in the course of daily living, be of at least moderate intensity accumulated in minimally 10 minute bouts, and add up to at least 150 minutes over the week. Considering a daily background of 5,000 steps/day (which may actually be too high for some older adults and/or special populations), a computed translation approximates 8,000 steps on days that include a target of achieving 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and approximately 7,100 steps/day if averaged over a week. Measured directly and including these background activities, the evidence suggests that 30 minutes of daily MVPA accumulated in addition to habitual daily activities in healthy older adults is equivalent to taking approximately 7,000-10,000 steps/day. Those living with disability and/or chronic illness (that limits mobility and or/physical endurance) display lower levels of background daily activity, and this will affect whole-day estimates of recommended physical activity.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a world pandemic due to COVID-19. In response, most affected countries have enacted measures involving compulsory confinement and restrictions on free ...movement, which likely influence citizens' lifestyles. This study investigates changes in health risk behaviors (HRBs) with duration of confinement. An online cross-sectional survey served to collect data about the Spanish adult population regarding health behaviors during the first 3 weeks of confinement. A large sample of participants (
N
= 2,741) (51.8% women; mean age 34.2 years SD 13.0) from all Spanish regions completed the survey. Binomial logistic regressions adjusted for socioeconomic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, civil status, education, and occupation), body mass index (BMI), previous HRBs, and confinement context (i.e., solitude and exposure to COVID-19) were conducted to investigate associations between the number of weeks confined and a set of six HRBs (physical activity, alcohol consumption, fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, smoking, screen exposure, and sleep hours). When adjusted, we observed significantly lower odds of experiencing a higher number of HRBs than before confinement overall in a time-dependent fashion: OR 0.63; 95% CI: 0.49–0.81 for the second and OR 0.47; 95% CI: 0.36–0.61 for the third week of confinement. These results were equally consistent in all age and gender subgroup analyses. The present study indicates that changes toward a higher number of HRBs than before confinement, as well as the prevalence of each HRB except screen exposure, decreased during the first 3 weeks of COVID-19 confinement, and thus the Spanish adult population may have adapted to the new situational context by gradually improving their health behaviors.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries have introduced non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as stay-at-home orders, to reduce person-to-person contact and break trains of ...transmission. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effect of different public health restrictions on mobility across different countries and cultures. The University of Bern COVID-19 Living Evidence database of COVID-19 and SARS-COV-2 publications was searched for retrospective or prospective studies evaluating the impact of COVID-19 public health restrictions on Google Mobility. Titles and abstracts were independently screened by two authors. Information from included studies was extracted by one researcher and double checked by another. Risk of bias of included articles was assessed using the Newcastle Ottowa Scale. Given the heterogeneous nature of the designs used, a narrative synthesis was undertaken. From the search, 1672 references were identified, of which 14 were included in the narrative synthesis. All studies reported data from the first wave of the pandemic, with Google Mobility Scores included from January to August 2020, with most studies analysing data during the first two months of the pandemic. Seven studies were assessed as having a moderate risk of bias and seven as a low risk of bias. Countries that introduced more stringent public health restrictions experienced greater reductions in mobility, through increased time at home and reductions in visits to shops, workplaces and use of public transport. Stay-at-home orders were the most effective of the individual strategies, whereas mask mandates had little effect of mobility.
Public health restrictions, particularly stay-at-home orders have significantly impacted on transmission prevention behaviours. Further research is required to understand how to effectively address pandemic fatigue and to support the safe return back to normal day-to-day behaviours.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the cross-sectional association between physical activity levels with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and positive mental well-being in a sample ...of the UK public social distancing owing to COVID-19.
This paper presents pre-planned interim analyses of data from a cross-sectional epidemiological study. Levels of physical activity during COVID-I9 social distancing were self-reported. Mental health was measured using the Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventory. Mental wellbeing was measured using The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. Participants also reported on sociodemographic and clinical data. The association between physical activity and mental health was studied using regression models.
902 adults were included in this study (63.8% of women and 50.1% of people aged 35–64 years). After adjusting for covariates, there was a negative association between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day in hours and poor mental health (OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.80–0.97). Similar findings were obtained for moderate-to-severe anxiety symptoms, moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms and poor mental wellbeing.
In the present sample of UK adults social distancing owing to COVID-19 those who were physically active have better overall mental health. Owing, to the cross-sectional design of the present study the direction of the association cannot be inferred.
•We investigated the association between physical activity and mental health in the UK public during COVID-19 “lockdown”.•In this sample of UK adults those who were physically active had better overall mental health.•Owing, to the cross-sectional design of the present study the direction of the association cannot be inferred.
The new generation of activity monitors allow users to upload their data to the internet and review progress. The aim of this study is to validate the Fitbit Zip as a measure of free-living physical ...activity. Given the high level of correlation and no apparent systematic biases in the Bland Altman plots, the use of Fitbit Zip as a measure of physical activity. However the Fitbit Zip recorded a significantly higher number of steps per day than the Actigraph.
The COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent public health social measures have challenged our social and economic life, with increasing concerns around potentially rising levels of social isolation ...and loneliness. This paper is based on cross-sectional online survey data (available in 10 languages, from 2 June to 16 November 2020) with 20,398 respondents from 101 different countries. It aims to help increase our understanding of the global risk factors that are associated with social isolation and loneliness, irrespective of culture or country, to support evidence-based policy, services and public health interventions. We found the prevalence of severe loneliness was 21% during COVID-19 with 6% retrospectively reporting severe loneliness prior to the pandemic. A fifth were defined as isolated based on their usual connections, with 13% reporting a substantial increase in isolation during COVID-19. Personal finances and mental health were overarching and consistently cross-cutting predictors of loneliness and social isolation, both before and during the pandemic. With the likelihood of future waves of COVID-19 and related restrictions, it must be a public health priority to address the root causes of loneliness and social isolation and, in particular, address the needs of specific groups such as carers or those living alone.
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