Strict health protocols are necessary and have helped to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since the surge of the pandemic, lockdown allowed people to modify their homes to a more accessible workplace. But since there are limits to what people can do in their houses due to isolation, the daily travel experience and other physical activities had been temporarily removed from the routines of many people. Instead of going to various places and jumping from an office to another, people were pushed to utilize virtual technology and other modes of contactless communication. Basically, clicking for everything had been the norm throughout history.
Pandemic's Mental Impact on Global Health
Modern technology may have helped the global population to get through the dangers of pandemics while allowing themselves to continue their jobs and communicate with their family and acquaintances. However, a new study suggests that many people had been fond of being stationary under their sedentary lifestyle since the surge of the pandemic. The research said that individuals who had been excessively sitting between April and June 2020 tend to have incurred symptoms of depression. The main interest of the study is to gather data from the psychiatric states brought about by the pandemic and to improve the mental health of individuals.
Iowa State University's Department of Kinesiology expert and author of the study Jacob Meyer said in a report by ISU News Service that sitting is a 'sneaky behavior.' The normality of the activity lets people do it without requiring any intensive thinking and analysis. Meyer and colleagues from the university's Wellbeing and Exercise Laboratory conducted the research to define the correlation of an individual's sedentary behaviors and physical activities to the status of their mental health. Among the data that the team collected are the impacts of the specified behaviors towards the person, their perspectives, and the changes in their cognitive abilities. Meyer said that as soon as March 202 had hit the calendar, their team concluded that it was an opportunity to conduct research, as many of the global population will most likely experience mental and behavioral transitions due to the pandemic-induced impacts.
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Excessive Sitting Leads to Depression, Anxiety, and Other Mental Challenges
The new study concluded that the people who had dedicated a large amount of time from their day sitting had significant issues with their mental wellness. The latest results were published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, titled "High Sitting Time Is a Behavioral Risk Factor for Blunted Improvement in Depression Across 8 Weeks of the COVID-19 Pandemic in April-May 2020."
The study was made possible through the help of over 3,000 participants from every state of the country, as well as some subjects from the District of Colombia. Based on the investigation, the participants were asked to fill out a survey that includes various details such as the time they spend on physical activities such as exercise, looking at the screen, and even sitting. The participants were also asked to differentiate their current behaviors from the pre-pandemic aspects. In addition, the subjects were also evaluated with their mental wellbeing, measuring the tendency of depression, anxiety, loneliness, or stress, and how these transitions are taking place so far.
The initial research was conducted by Meyer's team and was published in the journal Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, titled "Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and Their Associations with Mental Health in 3052 US Adults." This study, followed up by recent findings, confirmed that people who are following the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines had their physical activities decreased by 32 percent since the strict health protocols took effect.
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