The effect of social life restrictions on lipid profile during the COVİD- 19 pandemic process

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused restrictions on people's social lives. The obligation to stay at home and social isolation have led people to physical inactivity (sedentary behavior). In this study, we aimed to retrospectively examine the effect of sedentary life on the lipid profile of adult individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic. In our study, all patients whose cholesterol panel was examined between 01.03.2019 and 31.12.2021 were collected retrospectively from electronic patient records; people between the ages of 18 and over and 65 years of age who applied to our polyclinics between the specified dates, pre-pandemic (March 2019-March 2020), restriction period (March 2020-June 2020), and post-pandemic period (2021 June-post). All patients whose lipid panels were examined in 3 separate periods and who had no data deficiency were accepted and included in the study. A total of 376 patients whose cholesterol panels were examined in all three periods between the specified dates were included in the study. Of the patients participating in our study, 49.7% were male and 50.3% were female; the youngest age was 30, the oldest was 64, and the mean age was 49.81±9.069 years. Total cholesterol and total cholesterol/HDL-C ratio and VLDL-C values were significantly higher in the pandemic period than in the previous pandemic period. HDL-C value was low during the pandemic and was high before the pandemic, but no significant change was detected in the post-pandemic period from the pandemic process. LDL-C value was higher during the pandemic than before the pandemic. It was lower in the post-pandemic normalization process than in the pandemic process, and it was found to be significantly higher than the pre-pandemic period. Triglyceride values were higher in the pandemic process than in the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic normalization process, and no significant difference was found between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic. NonHDL-C values were significantly lower during the pandemic than before and after the pandemic. According to these results, social life restrictions (such as the closure of gyms, the transition of schools to online education, curfews and restriction of social activities) during the pandemic process, where there are restrictions in many countries in the world, have negatively affected the lipid profile as expected, as they lead people to a sedentary lifestyle. Dyslipidemia is one of the causes of cardiovascular diseases. Although there was an improvement in the normalization process after the pandemic, the pandemic could not reach the previous cholesterol values. Negative effects of the pandemic on cardiovascular risk have been observed in the early period, and studies should be carried out for a more physically active life in future possible pandemics.