College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, 4250 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 20008, USA.
Lehman College City University of New York, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY, 10468, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Apr 19;21(1):755. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10825-6.
COVID-19 has taken its toll on citizens in all 50 states of the United States. The United States (U.S.) leads the world with 30,291,863 confirmed reported cases and 549,664 deaths as of March 29, 2021 compared to globally confirmed cases at 127,442,926 and 2,787,915 deaths as of March 29, 2021. The U.S. federal government primarily left the response to the virus to individual states, and each implemented varying measures designed to protect health of citizens and the state's economic well-being. Unintended consequences of the virus and measures to stop its spread may include decreased physical activity and exercise, shifting access and consumption of food, and lower quality-of-life. Therefore, our primary goal was to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on health and well-being by measuring changes in physical activity, mental health-quality of life, food security and nutrition in adults ages 40 and older. We believed shifts in health behaviors would be more prevalent in minorities, less educated, lower socio-economic status, older adults, and those with underlying health conditions, so a secondary goal was to determine the impact of COVID-19 on these sub-populations.
We conducted an online survey with 9969 adults 40 years and older between 9 August and 15 September 2020 in urban areas across the four U.S. census regions. The survey included questions about demographic variables, pre-existing health conditions, physical activity, access to food, quality-of-life, and nutritional food status and asked participants to respond with information from pre-pandemic and pandemic conditions. We used paired-sample t-tests to detect changes in variables after the start of the pandemic and Cohen's d to determine effect sizes.
Our main findings showed a decrease in physical activity since the onset of COVID-19 for minorities and non-minorities. Food security also slightly increased for minorities during the pandemic, but we found no other changes in food security, quality-of-life indicators, or nutritional status of those who responded to this survey.
It is concerning that physical activity declined. Such activity helps maintain physical and mental health, and it is also an important time to socialize for many older adults. In many ways, our data indicate that the older adult population in U.S. cities may be more resilient than expected during the pandemic. However, the pandemic could have negative impacts that we did not detect, either due to the survey instrument or the timing of our survey, so the health and well-being of older adults should continue to be monitored in order to mitigate potential negative impacts.
COVID-19 已对美国 50 个州的公民造成影响。截至 2021 年 3 月 29 日，美国报告的确诊病例达 30291863 例，死亡病例达 549664 例，居世界首位，而全球确诊病例为 127442926 例，死亡病例为 2787915 例。美国联邦政府主要将应对病毒的工作留给各州，各州采取了不同的措施来保护公民的健康和州的经济福祉。病毒的意外后果和阻止其传播的措施可能包括减少体育活动和锻炼，改变食物的获取和消费方式，以及降低生活质量。因此，我们的主要目标是通过测量 40 岁及以上成年人的体育活动、心理健康-生活质量、粮食安全和营养的变化来量化 COVID-19 对健康和福祉的影响。我们认为，健康行为的变化在少数民族、受教育程度较低、社会经济地位较低、老年人以及有潜在健康问题的人群中更为普遍，因此我们的次要目标是确定 COVID-19 对这些亚人群的影响。
我们在 2020 年 8 月 9 日至 9 月 15 日期间，在美国四个普查区的城市地区，对 9969 名 40 岁及以上的成年人进行了在线调查。该调查包括有关人口统计学变量、预先存在的健康状况、体育活动、食物获取、生活质量以及营养食品状况的问题，并要求参与者根据大流行前和大流行期间的情况做出回答。我们使用配对样本 t 检验来检测大流行开始后变量的变化，并使用 Cohen's d 来确定效应大小。
我们的主要发现表明，自 COVID-19 爆发以来，少数民族和非少数民族的体育活动有所减少。在大流行期间，少数族裔的粮食保障状况也略有改善，但我们没有发现对这次调查做出回应的人群在粮食保障、生活质量指标或营养状况方面有其他变化。
体育活动的减少令人担忧。这种活动有助于保持身心健康，也是许多老年人进行社交的重要时刻。在许多方面，我们的数据表明，美国城市的老年人口在大流行期间可能比预期的更具弹性。然而，由于调查工具或我们调查的时间，大流行可能会产生我们没有检测到的负面影响，因此应继续监测老年人的健康和福祉，以减轻潜在的负面影响。
