The impact of COVID-19 on physical activity behaviour in Italian primary school children: a comparison before and during pandemic considering gender differences

Background: The World Health Organization stated an average of 60min of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) that children should accumulate every day. Nevertheless physical inactivity is growing and, due to restrictions imposed during pandemic, PA levels of children might be more negatively affected. The study aimed to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the PA of an Italian sample of primary school children by comparing it before and during COVID-19 considering gender diferences. Methods: A pre-post analysis (October 2019–January 2021) was conducted using a randomized sample (N =77) from the I-MOVE study settled in an Italian primary school. Both objective (Actigraph accelerometers) and selfreported (PAQ-c questionnaires) assessments of PA were performed. Changes were compared using T-Student and Chi-Square test. Gender diferences were calculated using Anova. Results: Weekly and daily minutes time spent in MVPA signifcantly decreased respectively by −30.59±120.87 and−15.32±16.21 from before to during pandemic while the weekly time spent in sedentary behaviour increased (+1196.01±381.49). PAQ-c scores followed the same negative trend (−0.87±0.72). Boys seem to have suffered more than girls from the imposed restrictions. Conclusion: These findings outline the need for strategies to promote PA and reduce sedentary behaviours in children to prevent COVID-19 restriction long-term effects.