The impact of COVID-19 on fitness behaviour amongst a sample of the Maltese population

Abstract

Background. COVID-19 has brought significant changes all over the world, including Malta. These changes might have impacted people's health and lifestyle. Such changes might have limited health and fitness behaviours such as frequency of exercise, intensity of exercise and water intake. Therefore, this study aims to examine and explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted fitness behaviours amongst a sample of the Maltese population.

Methods. The sample (n = 995)was selected through convenience sampling. Data was collected through an online 38-item survey which was dispersed on social media during April and May 2020. The questions measured the frequency of health behaviours to provide a comparison between the participant's health behaviours in November 2019 and April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results. The data was analysed through Factor Analysis which was conducted for dimension reduction. Factor analysis resulted in 1 factor composed of 3 variables (frequency of exercise, intensity of exercise and water consumption). Further analyses were conducted using a paired samples t-test on SPSS. Following analysis, the results showed that there was an increase in exercise frequency amongst the sample population, whereas there was a decrease in exercise intensity and water consumption. These results confirm that there was a change in health behaviours amongst the study's sample.

Conclusion. This study recommends further investigation as to understand this difference in behaviours and its attributes. This can help inform health behaviours should there be further waves of the pandemic or other lockdowns.