A study of physical activity levels and quality of life in young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The aim: To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the level of physical activity and quality of life in young adults. Materials and methods: A survey of 327 young people aged 18-25 years was conducted; the SF-36 (Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form) questionnaire was used to determine the quality of life; a questionnaire taking into account the WHO Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health in order to determine the level of physical activity was applied. Results: Young adults men 88 (27%) and 239 women (73%), mean age 21.4±1.8 y.o., the survey showed that 52% of those studied did not engage in physical activity at all, 28% had insufcient physical activity, only 20% had an adequate level of physical activity. There was a decrease in all quality of life indicators during the pandemic period compared to the previous period, especially the physical role functioning indicator (p = 0.0002), general health (p = 0.0004), emotional role functioning indicator (p = 0.0001) and mental health indicator (p = 0.0004). Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a signifcant impact on the quality of life and physical activity levels of young adults and most of this is due to the restrictive measures of the pandemic.