Faculty of Physical Education, Assiut University, Assiut, 71515, Egypt.
Department of Sport Sciences, College of Education, Taif University, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Jul 17;23(1):1365. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16068-x.
COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed people's lifestyles and daily routines around the world. This study aimed to investigate changes in daily step counts - as an indicator of physical activity - before, during, and after the pandemic among university students in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and to identify regional and gender factors that may have influenced physical activity during these periods.
A total of 1273 university students from Egypt (Assiut University and Zagazig University) and Saudi Arabia (Taif University, King Faisal University, and Imam AbdulRahman Bin Faisal University) provided valid data on their daily step counts recorded by a smartphone application (iPhone Health App) from January 2019 to December 2021. The data was divided and averaged based on three periods: the pre-pandemic year (January to December 2019), the first pandemic year (January to December 2020), and the second pandemic year (January to December 2021).
The results showed a significant decrease in daily steps from pre-pandemic to the first pandemic year, followed by an increase in the second pandemic year. However, daily step counts did not fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in male Egyptian and marginally in male Saudi participants. In both nationalities, female participants did not show a significant difference in daily steps between the pre-pandemic and second-pandemic years. Female Egyptian participants had significantly lower daily step counts than male Egyptian participants, and a gender difference in daily steps was also observed in Saudi female participants in the pre-pandemic and the second pandemic year but not during the first pandemic year.
These findings outline the need for strategies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior, especially among young women, to mitigate the negative consequences of COVID-19 and meet physical activity guidelines.
COVID-19 大流行极大地改变了世界各地人们的生活方式和日常生活。本研究旨在调查埃及和沙特阿拉伯大学生在大流行前后日常步数（作为身体活动的指标）的变化，并确定可能影响这些时期身体活动的区域和性别因素。
共有 1273 名来自埃及（艾斯尤特大学和宰加济格大学）和沙特阿拉伯（塔伊夫大学、法伊萨尔国王大学和伊玛目阿卜杜勒拉赫曼·本·法伊萨尔大学）的大学生通过智能手机应用程序（iPhone Health App）提供了他们在 2019 年 1 月至 2021 年 12 月期间的日常步数的有效数据。根据三个时期对数据进行了划分和平均：大流行前一年（2019 年 1 月至 12 月）、大流行第一年（2020 年 1 月至 12 月）和大流行第二年（2021 年 1 月至 12 月）。
结果表明，从大流行前到第一年大流行，日常步数显著减少，随后第二年大流行有所增加。然而，埃及男性和沙特男性参与者的日常步数并未完全恢复到大流行前水平。在这两个国家，女性参与者的日常步数在大流行前和第二年之间没有明显差异。与埃及男性参与者相比，埃及女性参与者的日常步数明显较低，在大流行前和第二年，沙特女性参与者的日常步数也存在性别差异，但在第一年大流行期间则没有。
这些发现强调了埃及和沙特阿拉伯需要制定策略来促进身体活动和减少久坐行为，特别是在年轻女性中，以减轻 COVID-19 的负面影响并达到身体活动指南的要求。
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