Impact of COVID-19 lockdown and online studies on fitness in college students in and around Kerala

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a newly discovered infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). In March 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. As a result, schools and colleges were forced to shut down all over the world. This makes all students population to study from home through online classes. The objective of the study was to find out the relationship between COVID-19, fitness, and lifestyle changes in students. A sample of 300 students (aged between 18 and 25 years) from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka participated in this online survey sent through a Google Form. The survey consisted of 15 questions regarding the student’s activity level, food habits, and health. A total of 90% of the population did not have any medical limitations to stay active during this survey. Out of this, more than half (53%) of the study population has marked that the pandemic has influenced their fitness status. The sedentary behavior among the population has increased. A total of 49.7% of the population was physically less active, and 37.7% was not at all active. The possible reasons could be lack of time to do exercise, altered sleeping behavior, increased laziness, and increased online time. A total of 60.7% population have marked that they do not eat more during pandemic and their food habits were good. A total of 47.7% wish to improve their overall health but not decrease weight. Only 16.7% of the population needs to reduce their weight. This is associated with better access to fresh, homemade food. This indicates that majority of studied student population has good eating habits, but they are not able to stay physically fit due to inability to stay physically active. This study concludes that physical activity limitation is the major factor found to have decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic’s online learning. Majority of students’ eating habits have improved due to lockdown, but their fitness status has remained low due to online learning.