Edited by: Ricardo De La Vega, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
Reviewed by: Raul Antunes, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal; Rupam Bhattacharyya, University of Michigan, United States; Melissa Oldham, University College London, United Kingdom
This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
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COVID-19 represents one of the most important sanitary crises in the last decades. Beyond the effects of COVID-19 on physical health, the disease may also have side effects on mental health, due to the strategies most countries have adopted for restraining contagion (e.g., lockdowns and closure of restaurants, schools, and public places) and other related events (e.g., overload media exposure of COVID-19, Garfin et al.,
To limit the side effects of these restrictive measures, the WHO (
Despite WHO recommendations and the potential benefits of physical activity during COVID-19 lockdown, a reduction of physical activity from 7 to 38% in European countries has been observed during the week of March 22 (FitBit,
The sociocognitive approach has been dominant to examine factors of physical activity (for a review, see Rhodes et al.,
Although psychological theories are useful to explain engagement in physical activity, they have mostly focused on psychological factors and have omitted the role of external ones. Yet, there is evidence that sociodemographic and environmental factors also substantially predict physical activity. For example, research in different countries showed a tendency of women to be less physically active than men (for a review, see Guthold et al.,
Other studies have identified environmental factors on physical activity, including walkability, housing type, access to open spaces/recreation facilities, aesthetic variables (e.g., places evaluated as attractive), and mixed land use (coexistence of shops, residences, and other buildings in the same neighborhood/zone) (for a review, see Durand et al.,
In sum, it is necessary to consider not only psychological factors but also external ones to better understand physical activity participation. This integrative approach is particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, which has caused sudden changes in people's work, family, and living environment.
Based on the aforementioned literature, we investigated individual-level factors, including psychological (i.e., intention, self-efficacy, autonomous, and controlled motivation, as well as factors that may be particularly relevant in this sanitary crisis situation, such as perceived risks of being contaminated, perceived stress, and vitality) and behavioral (i.e., usual physical activity before the lockdown) factors, as well as sociodemographic (i.e., age, gender, education, employment, household, and socioeconomic status) and environmental (i.e., type of housing, habitat surface areas, region's degree of COVID-19 contamination, access to sports equipment, and the media exposure) factors.
A recent study conducted at the same time as the present research suggests that individual-level factors predict more physical activity than environmental ones (Rhodes et al.,
To investigate the relationships between individual and external factors and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during the COVID-19 lockdown, we adopted the same model comparison approach as in Sniehotta et al. (
Hypothesis 1. Sociodemographic (i.e., age, gender, number of children, employment status, and educational attainment), environmental (i.e., type of housing, habitat surface area, access to sports equipment, and media exposure), and individual (e.g., usual physical activity before COVID-19 lockdown, intention, self-efficacy, autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, subjective vitality, stress, and perceived risks of getting COVID-19) variables predict physical activity during the COVID-19 lockdown independently from each other.
Hypothesis 2. The relationships between environmental/sociodemographic variables and physical activity during the lockdown are mediated by intention and self-efficacy.
Hypothesis 3. The relationships between environmental/sociodemographic variables and physical activity during the lockdown are moderated by intention and self-efficacy.
An
Three-hundred-and-eighty-six people (65.54% women;
Physical activity during lockdown was assessed based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ, Craig et al.,
Usual physical activity before the lockdown was assessed using the Saltin–Grimby Physical Activity Questionnaire (Grimby et al.,
Intention to do physical activity was assessed using one item from Godin (
Media exposure was assessed to gather information about the extent to which the search of information has or has not increased since the start of lockdown. Four items measured four different sources of information (e.g., television, Internet, social networks, and press). Reliability was acceptable for this scale (α = 0.64) (more details of the scales in
Sociodemographic information included age, gender, number of children, employment status (full-time work, partial-time work, partial unemployment, or no job), educational attainment, type of housing (housing with access to green areas or terrace and housing without access to green areas or terrace), habitat surface area, region's degree of contamination (regions most affected by coronavirus were classified as red, regions less affected as yellow, and the regions the least affected as green), and access to sports equipment at home (yes or no).
Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) did not have a normal distribution, and squared root transformation was applied to approximate a normal curve. Once MVPA was transformed, skewness and kurtosis were examined to check for normality.
All hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regressions in R version 3.6.0. The “Lm” function was used to test the first and second hypotheses, and “olsrr” package (Hebbali,
Hypothesis 1 was tested using hierarchical regression analyses. In the first step, all the sociodemographic and environmental variables were included as predictors. In the second step, individual variables (intention, self-efficacy, autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, subjective vitality, perceived stress, perceived severity of COVID-19, and usual physical activity before lockdown) were additionally included following the methodology used by Sniehotta et al. (
Hypothesis 2 was investigated using mediation analysis following recommendations of Yzerbyt et al. (
Hypothesis 3 was tested using stepwise forward regression analyses. Stepwise forward regression is a method that selects and retains predictors based on mathematical criteria (e.g., Akaike information criterion), the final model containing the best predictors of the outcome and the best fitting indices (Field et al.,
After testing each hypothesis, we followed recommendations to assess the independence of residuals (using Durbin–Watson test), normal distribution of residuals (using bar plot and q–q plot), and non-multicollinearity (using VIF function in “car” package, Fox and Weisberg,
The sample population reported performing an average of 368 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week (SD = 251.12). The means, standard deviations, and the description of our variables are presented in
Means, standard deviations, and description of variables.
Dependent variable | |||
PA during COVID-19 lockdown | 368 (342.74, 393.34) | 251.12 | Minutes per week |
Sociodemographic and environmental Variables | |||
Gender | 65.54% women and 34.46% men | ||
Age | 33.09 (31.76, 34.41) | 13.18 | |
Region classified by color (green zones are the least affected by COVID-19, red zones are the most affected zones) | 63% people living in yellow zones, 19.2% people living in green zones, and 17.9% people in red zones | ||
Educational attainment | 6.04 (5.92, 6.16) | 1.20 | 0–7 |
Employment status | 45.08% full-time job, 32.9% no work, 12.7% part-time job, and 9.3% partial unemployment | ||
Type of housing | 68.65% access to green spaces/balcony and 31.35 % without access to green spaces/balcony | ||
Habitat surface area | 99.41 (94.37, 104.45) | 49.88 | Square meters |
Number of Children | 0.55 (0.46, 0.64) | 0.91 | |
Media exposure | 5.52 (5.35, 5.68) | 1.65 | 1–10 |
Access to sports equipment at home | 69.69% access to sports equipment and 32.9% without access to sports equipment | ||
Psychological and individual variables | |||
Intention | 5.60 (5.43, 5.77) | 1.67 | 1–7 |
Self-efficacy | 5.27 (5.1, 5.45) | 1.76 | 1–7 |
Autonomous motivation | 5.62 (5.5, 5.74) | 1.20 | 1–7 |
Controlled motivation | 1.84 (1.76, 1.93) | 0.87 | 1–7 |
Subjective vitality | 4.31 (4.18, 4.44) | 1.30 | 1–7 |
Perceived stress | 3.60 (3.55, 3.66) | 0.55 | 1–7 |
Perceived severity of getting COVID | 2.9 (2.74, 3.04) | 1.48 | 1–7 |
Usual physical activity before lockdown | 3.03 (2.94, 3.12) | 0.90 | 1–4 |
Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses were performed to test Hypothesis 1 (see
Hierarchical regression models testing the independent contribution of sociodemographic, environmental, and individual variables to physical activity during COVID-19 lockdown (Hypothesis 1).
Constant | 2.90 | −5.67 | 3.86 | 0.14 | ||||
(10.13, 21.54) | (−13.27, 1.93) | |||||||
Gender | 0.76 | 0.27 | 0.67 | 0.02 | 0.688 | |||
(0.08, 3.06) | (−1.05, 1.59) | |||||||
Age | −0.01 | 0.03 | −0.02 | 0.669 | −0.001 | 0.03 | −0.002 | 0.967 |
(−0.07, 0.04) | (−0.05, 0.05) | |||||||
Region degree of contamination | 0.49 | 0.58 | 0.04 | 0.397 | 0.46 | 0.49 | 0.04 | 0.348 |
(−0.65, 1.62) | (−0.50, 1.41) | |||||||
Educational attainment | 0.03 | 0.35 | 0.01 | 0.937 | 0.27 | 0.30 | 0.05 | 0.361 |
(−0.67, 0.72) | (−0.31, 0.86) | |||||||
Part-time job | −0.48 | 1.18 | −0.02 | 0.686 | −0.10 | 1.01 | −0.01 | 0.919 |
(−2.79, 1.84) | (−2.09, 1.88) | |||||||
Partial unemployment | 0.51 | 1.27 | 0.02 | 0.686 | 0.15 | 1.10 | 0.01 | 0.891 |
(−1.99, 3.02) | (−2.01, 2.32) | |||||||
No job | 1.33 | 0.97 | 0.09 | 0.170 | 1.33 | 0.82 | 0.09 | 0.105 |
(−0.57, 3.23) | (−0.28, 2.94) | |||||||
Housing without access to green areas/terrace | −0.15 | 0.87 | −0.01 | 0.863 | 1.14 | 0.75 | 0.08 | 0.130 |
(−1.87, 1.57) | (−0.34, 2.62) | |||||||
Habitat surface area | 0.01 | 0.01 | ||||||
(0.001, 0.04) | (0.001, 0.03) | |||||||
Number of children | −0.59 | 0.41 | −0.08 | 0.157 | −0.33 | 0.36 | −0.04 | 0.358 |
(−1.40, 0.23) | (−1.03, 0.37) | |||||||
No access to sports equipment | 0.78 | −0.90 | 0.71 | −0.06 | 0.203 | |||
(−5.21, −2.15) | (−2.30, 0.49) | |||||||
Media exposure | 0.02 | 0.21 | 0.01 | 0.917 | 0.31 |
0.18 | 0.07 |
0.092 |
(−0.40, 0.44) | (−0.05, 0.67) | |||||||
Intention | 0.26 | |||||||
(0.47, 1.51) | ||||||||
Self-efficacy | 0.36 | 0.27 | 0.09 | 0.174 | ||||
(−0.16, 0.86) | ||||||||
Autonomous motivation | 0.17 | 0.31 | 0.03 | 0.595 | ||||
(−0.45, 0.79) | ||||||||
Controlled motivation | 0.36 | |||||||
(−1.44, −0.01) | ||||||||
Subjective vitality | 0.50 |
0.27 | 0.09 |
0.068 | ||||
(−0.04, 1.04) | ||||||||
Perceived stress | 0.35 | 0.58 | 0.03 | 0.545 | ||||
(−0.79, 1.48) | ||||||||
Perceived severity | −0.22 | 0.21 | −0.05 | 0.299 | ||||
(−0.63, 0.20) | ||||||||
Usual physical activity before lockdown | 0.43 | |||||||
(1.66, 3.33) | ||||||||
The second model, which included individual variables in addition to sociodemographic/environmental ones, was significant [
The first multiple regression of the mediation analysis (see
Hierarchical regression models testing the mediating role of intention and self-efficacy in the association between sociodemographic/environmental variables and physical activity during COVID-19 lockdown (Hypothesis 2).
Constant | −2.34 | 4.01 | 0.560 | 1.01 | 1.44 | 1.00 | 0.151 | |||||
(−10.23, 5.55) | (0.78, 4.74) | (−0.53, 3.42) | ||||||||||
Gender | 0.15 | 0.71 | 0.01 | 0.827 | −0.10 | 0.18 | −0.03 | 0.573 | −0.03 | 0.18 | −0.01 | 0.887 |
(−1.23, 1.54) | (−0.45, 0.25) | (−0.37, 0.32) | ||||||||||
Age | −0.01 | 0.03 | −0.02 | 0.683 | −0.01 | 0.01 | −0.07 | 0.188 | −0.00 | 0.01 | −0.03 | 0.583 |
(−0.07, 0.04) | (−0.02, 0.01) | (−0.02, 0.01) | ||||||||||
Region degree of contamination | 0.53 | 0.51 | 0.05 | 0.300 | 0.05 | 0.13 | 0.02 | 0.712 | 0.07 | 0.13 | 0.03 | 0.565 |
(−0.48, 1.54) | (−0.21, 0.30) | (−0.18, 0.33) | ||||||||||
Educational attainment | 0.30 | 0.31 | 0.05 | 0.342 | 0.03 | 0.08 | 0.03 | 0.658 | −0.04 | 0.08 | −0.03 | 0.619 |
(−0.32, 0.92) | (−0.12, 0.19) | (−0.19, 0.12) | ||||||||||
Part-time job | 0.11 | 1.06 | −0.01 | 0.919 | 0.21 | 0.26 | 0.04 | 0.435 | 0.10 | 0.26 | 0.02 | 0.702 |
(−1.98, 2.19) | (−0.31, 0.73) | (−0.28, 0.86) | ||||||||||
Partial unemployment | 0.14 | 1.15 | 0.01 | 0.904 | −0.12 | 0.29 | −0.02 | 0.676 | 0.29 | 0.29 | 0.05 | 0.319 |
(−2.13, 2.41) | (−0.69, 0.45) | (−0.28, 0.57) | ||||||||||
No job | 1.26 | 0.86 | 0.09 | 0.142 | −0.13 | 0.22 | −0.04 | 0.539 | 0.15 | 0.21 | 0.04 | 0.499 |
(−0.43, 2.95) | (−0.56, 0.29) | (−0.28, 0.57) | ||||||||||
Housing without access to green areas/terrace | 1.14 | 0.79 | 0.08 | 0.148 | 0.03 | 0.20 | 0.01 | 0.863 | −0.07 | 0.20 | −0.02 | 0.717 |
(−0.41, 2.69) | (−0.36, 0.43) | (−0.46, 0.32) | ||||||||||
Habitat surface area | 0.01 |
0.01 | 0.10 |
0.090 | −0.002 | 0.002 | −0.06 | 0.291 | 0.00 | 0.00 | −0.01 | 0.934 |
(−0.002, 0.03) | (−0.01, 0.002) | (−0.00, 0.00) | ||||||||||
Number of children | −0.46 | 0.37 | −0.06 | 0.220 | −0.10 | 0.09 | −0.05 | 0.309 | −0.12 | 0.09 | −0.06 | 0.209 |
(−1.19, 0.28) | (−0.28, 0.09) | (−0.30, 0.07) | ||||||||||
No access to sports equipment | −0.99 | 0.74 | −0.07 | 0.186 | −0.07 | 0.19 | −0.02 | 0.709 | −0.04 | 0.19 | −0.01 | 0.813 |
(−2.45, 0.48) | (−0.44, 0.30) | (−0.41, 0.32) | ||||||||||
Media exposure | 0.29 | 0.19 | 0.07 | 0.134 | −0.02 | 0.05 | −0.02 | 0.732 | 0.01 | 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.913 |
(−0.09, 0.67) | (−0.11, 0.08) | (−0.09, 0.10) | ||||||||||
Autonomous motivation | 0.31 | 0.08 | 0.08 | |||||||||
(0.15, 1.38) | (0.29, 0.60) | (0.26, 0.57) | ||||||||||
Controlled motivation | 0.38 | 0.01 | 0.10 | 0.01 | 0.901 | −0.16 |
0.10 | −0.08 |
0.095 | |||
(−1.52, −0.03) | (−0.18, 0.20) | (−0.35, 0.03) | ||||||||||
Subjective vitality | 0.27 | 0.07 | 0.07 | |||||||||
(0.28, 1.36) | (0.04, 0.31) | (0.27, 0.54) | ||||||||||
Perceived stress | −0.07 | 0.60 | −0.01 | 0.912 | 0.15 | −0.27 |
0.15 | −0.08 |
0.077 | |||
(−1.25, 1.11) | (−0.61, −0.01) | (−0.56, 0.03) | ||||||||||
Perceived severity | −0.14 | 0.22 | −0.03 | 0.527 | 0.06 | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.296 | 0.06 | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.292 |
(−0.57, 0.29) | (−0.05, 0.17) | (−0.05, 0.17) | ||||||||||
Usual physical activity before lockdown | 0.44 | 0.11 | 0.11 | |||||||||
(2.07, 3.80) | (0.10, 0.54) | (0.15, 0.58) | ||||||||||
Second, in model 3.1 (
In model 3.2 (
We decided to stop the mediation analyses at this stage because there was no sociodemographic or environmental factor that was significantly associated to both physical activity and one of the potential mediators (intention or self-efficacy).
Given the high number of predictors when adding interactive terms, a stepwise forward multiple regression analysis was performed to test Hypothesis 3. The final model is detailed in
Stepwise regression model testing interaction effects between intention, self-efficacy, and sociodemographic/environmental variables on physical activity during COVID-19 lockdown (Hypothesis 3).
Constant | 0.63 | |||
(16.21, 18.70) | ||||
Usual physical activity before lockdown | 0.43 | |||
(1.36, 3.04) | ||||
Self-efficacy | 0.14 | 0.31 | 0.04 | 0.652 |
(−0.48, 0.76) | ||||
Habit surface area | 0.02 |
0.01 | 0.10t | 0.053 |
(0.00, 0.03) | ||||
Controlled motivation | 0.36 | |||
(−1.52, −0.11) | ||||
Subjective vitality | 0.47 |
0.27 | 0.09 |
0.085 |
(−0.07, 1.01) | ||||
Part-time job | 0.19 | 1.00 | −0.01 | 0.852 |
(−1.79, 2.16) | ||||
Partial unemployment | 0.28 | 1.09 | 0.01 | 0.794 |
(−1.86, 2.43) | ||||
No job | 1.26 | 0.81 | 0.09 | 0.122 |
(−0.34, 2.85) | ||||
Media exposure | 0.18 | |||
(0.04, 0.76) | ||||
Gender | 0.23 | 0.66 | 0.02 | 0.725 |
(−1.07, 1.54) | ||||
Region degree of contamination | 0.28 | 0.48 | 0.03 | 0.561 |
(−0.67, 1.24) | ||||
Number of children | −0.44 | 0.35 | −0.06 | 0.215 |
(−1.13, 0.26) | ||||
Perceived severity | −0.36 |
0.21 | −0.08 |
0.096 |
(−0.78, 0.06) | ||||
No access to sports equipment | −0.97 | 0.71 | −0.06 | 0.172 |
(−2.36, 0.42) | ||||
Age | 0.01 | 0.03 | 0.02 | 0.762 |
(−0.04, 0.06) | ||||
Housing without access to green areas/terrace | 0.97 | 0.75 | 0.07 | 0.194 |
(−0.50, 2.44) | ||||
Educational attainment | −0.34 | 0.30 | 0.06 | 0.257 |
(−0.94, 0.25) | ||||
Perceived stress | 0.46 | 0.58 | 0.04 | 0.422 |
(−0.67, 1.59) | ||||
Autonomous motivation | 0.25 | 0.31 | 0.04 | 0.421 |
(−0.36, 0.87) | ||||
Intention | 0.37 | |||
(0.12, 1.58) | ||||
Gender × intention | 0.39 | |||
(0.03, 1.57) | ||||
Age × intention | −0.02 | 0.01 | −0.07 | 0.128 |
(−0.05, 0.01) | ||||
Housing without access to green areas/terrace × self-efficacy | 0.70 |
0.38 | 0.10 |
0.067 |
(−0.05, 1.45) | ||||
Number of children × self-efficacy | 0.36 |
0.19 | 0.09 |
0.066 |
(−0.02, 0.74) | ||||
Region degree of contamination × intention | 0.52 |
0.30 | 0.08 |
0.080 |
(−0.06, 1.10) | ||||
Educational attainment × self-efficacy | 0.25 | 0.15 | 0.08 | 0.010 |
(−0.05, 0.54) | ||||
Part-time job × intention | 0.66 | |||
(−2.63, −0.05) | ||||
Partial unemployment × intention | −0.51 | 0.64 | −0.04 | 0.425 |
(−1.78, 0.75) | ||||
No job × intention | 0.14 | 0.43 | 0.02 | 0.744 |
(−0.70, 0.98) | ||||
Concerning the moderating role of self-efficacy and intention, the interaction between gender and intention (
Durbin–Watson test [Durbin and Watson,
To simplify simple slopes analyses interpretations, all independent variables were scaled before analyses. All the Johnson Neyman plots are displayed in
Johnson-Neyman plot of the Interaction Gender x Intention on physical activity. In the x label, Intention standard deviations (SD). In the y level, slope of Gender. Green areas represent significant (
Johnson-Neyman plot of the Interaction Part-time job x Intention on physical activity. In the x label, Intention standard deviations (SD). In the y level, slope of Partial-time job. Green areas represent significant (
Results provide partial support to the hypothesis that individual, sociodemographic, and environmental factors independently predict physical activity (H1). More particularly, we observed a significant role of only one environmental variable (habitat surface area). In contrast, three individual-level variables (usual physical activity, intention, and controlled motivation) significantly predicted physical activity. In other words, people were less physically active when they were little physically active before the COVID-19 lockdown, when they had low intention to be physically active, when they had a high controlled motivation, and when they lived in a small housing.
In contrast, our findings do not provide support to the hypothesis that intention and self-efficacy mediate the association between sociodemographic/environmental factors and physical activity, which contradicts previous studies (Sniehotta et al.,
Finally, intention moderated the association between some sociodemographic variables (i.e., gender and partial-time job) and physical activity, providing some support to H3. More particularly, when intention was low, women and participants with full-time jobs were more physically active than men and participants with partial-time jobs.
The main contribution of this study is to show that individual factors predicted physical activity more than environmental and sociodemographic ones during lockdown, corroborating the results of Rhodes et al. (
At first glance, these results may seem contradictory with several studies showing that the diminution of physical activity during lockdown mostly affected people who were usually physically active (Barkley et al.,
The predictive role of intention was in line with past research (e.g., Hagger et al.,
Furthermore, the role of habitat surface area is less studied in the physical activity literature. Some research in leisure-time sitting (Saidj et al.,
Contrary to past research (Cerin and Leslie,
Finally, previous studies have shown that intention and self-efficacy moderate physical activity behaviors (Sniehotta et al.,
Measuring physical activity using self-reports was the main limitation of this study, as past research has shown an overestimation of the amount of physical activity when using self-reported physical activity (Dyrstad et al.,
In terms of practical implications, identification of the sociodemographic, environmental, and individual factors of physical activity patterns and levels could benefit physical activity promotion programs. Most countries have implemented two or more lockdowns since the beginning of the pandemic, and the health situation seems to be far from over. Consequently, the promotion of healthy behaviors during lockdowns are critical to preserve mental and physical health, especially for people who have been impacted by unemployment and the economic crisis provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should focus on understanding how the health behaviors of individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds are affected by containment measures in order to better adapt intervention programs.
Broadly speaking, understanding how different levels of factors (i.e., individual, environmental, and sociodemographic) affect physical activity and other health behaviors might give us clues to address social inequalities in physical activity and health (e.g., Hunter et al.,
The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found below:
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by CERGA Univ. Grenoble Alpes. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
CT-E analyzed and interpreted the data under the supervision of CF and ACh. CT-E and ACh drafted the manuscript and the remaining authors provided critical revisions. All authors developed the study concept, contributed to the study design and data collection, and approved the final version of this manuscript for submission.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The authors thank the IDEX Univ. Grenoble Alpes.
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: