The Influence Of The COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown On Children's Physical Health

PURPOSE: Physical activity has decreased among child populations, which may lead to future health risks. Indeed, childhood obesity is also rising. In March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began, much of the world went into lockdown. For children, this resulted in virtual education and decreased opportunities for physical activity. The impact of these changes on childhood health are unknown. This investigation aimed to better understand the relationship of the COVID-19 lockdown limitations on aerobic fitness and body composition in children. METHODS: A group comparison of children (n = 154 participants, ages 8-11 yrs) who completed aerobic fitness (VO2max) and body composition (BMI) testing before and after the COVID-19 lockdown was conducted. Before the COVID-19 lockdown (BCL), data from 104 participants (49% female) were collected between January 2019 and March 2020. After reopening from the COVID-19 lockdown in July 2020 (ACL), data from 50 participants (36% female) were collected. Using Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry, body composition was measured by whole-body and regional tissue composition to examine visceral adipose tissue (VAT). Differences in aerobic fitness and body composition between children who completed testing BCL and ACL were compared. RESULTS: VO2max differed between BCL and ACL participants, where BCL participants had higher fitness (37.19 ± 3.15%) compared to ACL participants (16.80 ± 2.50%), p ≤ 0.001. A trend was observed for BMI between BCL (55.57 ± 2.84%) and ACL (64.46 ± 4.60%) participants, p = 0.09, with similar effects for whole body percent fat (BCL: 27.67 ± 0.68%, ACL: 30.01 ± 1.15%, p = 0.08). Importantly, BCL participants had less (VAT) (105.93 ± 13.21 g) than their ACL peers (160.58 ± 20.28 g), p = 0.03. CONCLUSION: Although this investigation cannot infer causal effects of the COVID-19 lockdown, the findings suggest that children’s physical health may be particularly vulnerable to the consequences surrounding the lockdown. These results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown negatively influenced children’s physical health, with a significant reduction in aerobic fitness. While marginal differences were observed for BMI, children who completed testing ACL had a significantly greater amount of dangerous metabolic adipose tissue (VAT).