“Come te la passi?” project: Cross sectional survey investigating Physical Activity and well-being of children and adolescents during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Background and Objective: The sars-cov-2 pandemic had a significant impact on the physical and general well-being of the youngest. In Italy, the population was forced to change habits, especially during the national lockdown that took place from march to may 2020, leading to an increase in sedentary behaviors. “Come te la passi?” project aimed to investigate changes in physical activity (pa) levels and well-being of children and adolescents in the city of bologna. Methods: An anonymous survey was administered in july 2021 to parents of children/adolescents aged 6-18 years attending educational services in bologna. A multilevel mixed-effects generalized ordered probit regression analysis was performed to investigate the change in frequency of pa during and after the national lockdown, as compared with before the lockdown. Results: 1134 Questionnaires were collected; 457 (40.3%) were female and the mean age was 13.0±3.4 years. Regarding perception of general well-being, 61.3% of participants reported that their child worried about the future, that 46.3% had difficulty sleeping and that 72.8% had difficulty paying attention, with a significatively higher proportion among adolescents. Regarding pa frequency during the lockdown, it was reported to be lower than before. additionally, postlockdown pa levels do not match pre-lockdown pa levels, with a “Polarization” of pa frequency. In fact, the percentage of children/adolescents who reportedly never or rarely did pa and the percentage of those who did pa with a high frequency both increased post-lockdown, whilst the percentage of those who did pa two/three times per week halved. No gender differences were found. Conclusion: Our results show that the current pandemic has had a strong impact on the well-being of children and adolescents. It appears to have affected mainly adolescents, and even after the end of the national lockdown, pa levels decreased significantly.