The COVID-19 Pandemic Lowers Active Behavior of Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases, Healthy Peoples and Athletes.

AIM

The paper aims to describe the impact of the increasing sedentary lifestyle due to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions in patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), healthy individuals, and athletes.

METHODS

A review of studies investigating the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on patients with CVDs, healthy subjects, and athletes has been conducted in the PubMed, Medline, and Google Scholar medical databases.

RESULTS

The review highlighted the significant decrease of active behavior in patients with CVDs and mainly heart-failure patients, illustrated by a reduction of their daily steps and hours of being active during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review also enlightened a significant increase of the time spent in sedentary behavior and the sleep in healthy individuals. Finally, this review reported that the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions induced detraining periods in athletes, altering their health. These periods might also lead to a decrease of their future performances.

CONCLUSIONS

Staying active and maintaining sufficient levels of physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic are essential to preserve good health, despite the circumstances of quarantine. Alternatives such as completing a cardiac telerehabilitation for CVD patients or training at home for healthy subjects and athletes may be taken into consideration to maintain a regular active behavior in this sanitary context and potential future pandemics.