Investigation of physical activity behaviors, exercise barriers, sleep quality and life quality of youths receiving distance education during pandemic period

This study was planned to examine the physical activity levels, exercise barriers, sleep and quality of life of young people receiving distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic and to examine the relationship between these factors and physical activity levels. In addition, it was aimed to examine the ways of obtaining information about the compliance of young people with COVID-19 protection strategies and the continuation of health, the content of the information they obtained, and their eating habits and weight changes in this process. Physical activity level is determined by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF); exercise barriers, Exercise Benefits and Barriers Scale (EBBS) with the Barrier Scale; sleep quality with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); Quality of life was assessed using the Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire 36 (SF-36). Questions about the pandemic process were added to the questionnaire. 339 students between the ages of 18-24 studying in health sciences were included in the study. According to IPAQ-SF, 25.7% of individuals were inactive; the largest exercise barriers were environmental factors, the average PSQI score was 6 (4-8) and 70.8% had poor sleep quality; The lowest score in quality of life belonged to emotional role difficulty 33.3 (0-100). Total exercise barrier score, sleep duration and physical function were found to be correlated with physical activity level (p <0.05). It has been observed that most of the students have implemented COVID-19 defense strategies during the pandemic. It was shown that they closely followed the pandemic process (88.8%) and the biggest news sources during this period were social media (35.5%). It was observed that information about COVID-19 during the pandemic process did not contain sufficient information on physical activity or this information did not reach young people (57.6%). During the pandemic process, it was shown that 39.8% of the students were more eating unhealthy, 44.5% were more frequently eating, and 43.7% gained weight. According to the results of the study, it is necessary to take measures to improve the physical activity level, sleep and life quality of university students and to make more calls to encourage staying active at home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic process. These results show that information related to physical activity and home-based exercise applications can be easily delivered using technology. In addition, we think that our study will guide all healthcare professionals in determining the interventions that can be done to make our young people living through the COVID-19 pandemic process and who will be the adults of the future become healthier individuals.