Effects of the covid-19 pandemic on physical activity and lifestyle in medical students

Objectives: During the Covid-19 pandemic, measures such as closing schools and workplaces; quarantining people have been implemented. All these measures led to a decrease in physical activity and an increase in sedentary behaviors. This situation adversely affected physical and psychological health. The aim of this study is to reveal the effects of the restrictions on students in terms of physical activity, lifestyle, weight, anxiety and mood. Material and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on the students of Istanbul Faculty of Medicine in the 2020-2021 academic year. The questionnaire was prepared in Google Forms and delivered to the students. It consisted of three parts. In the first part, there were questions about gender height and weight; the second part was the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) for the pre-pandemic and pandemic period; and in the last part, lifestyle and mental status were questioned. MET scores of the participants were calculated. Physical activity changes before and after the pandemic and other data were compared. Results: We observed that physical activity decreased after the pandemic. While low, moderate, vigorous physical activity and total MET scores decreased, sedentary time scores increased. In the categorization, while the percentage of inactive individuals increased, the percentage of very active individuals decreased. The total MET score in women was found to be lower than in men. An increase in sleeping times was observed. 49.7% of the participants stated that they gained weight; 50.6% of them declared that the pandemic affected their mood badly, and 50.3% of them stated that they had anxiety due to the pandemic. A positive correlation was found between social activity and mood. Conclusions: Situations with restriction of social life, such as pandemics, lead to a decrease in physical activity and an increase in sedentary behaviors. It causes changes in lifestyle habits such as sleep, nutrition and social activity. This also leads to weight gain. It negatively affects the mood of people and may result in anxiety.