The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on Australians' frequency and duration of participation in different types of sport and physical activity

Eime, Rochelle; Harvey, Jack; Charity, Melanie; Pankowiak, Aurelie; Westerbeek, Hans

doi:10.1186/s13102-022-00435-z

BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation

Table 1 Changes in self-reported frequency and duration of 18 popular forms of sport and physical activity¹ from before Covid to during Covid: persons by gender

From: The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on Australians' frequency and duration of participation in different types of sport and physical activity

Activity	Gender²	n^2,3	Frequency⁴ (Sessions per two weeks)			Duration⁵ (Minutes per session)
p values⁶			Mean before Covid	Mean during Covid	Change %	Mean before Covid	Mean during Covid	Change %
Athletics	Male	98	2.95	1.98	− 32.9	46.79	22.62	− 51.7
	Female	63	5.41	3.47	− 36.0	58.02	33.90	− 41.6
	All	162	3.90	2.54	− 35.0	51.05	26.87	− 47.4
p values			Year .019 Gender .032			Year < .001 Gender .049
Australian football	Male	472	2.75	1.03	− 62.4	66.79	24.32	− 63.6
	Female	131	2.58	0.60	− 76.6	65.17	14.60	− 77.6
	All	604	2.72	0.94	− 65.4	66.45	22.14	− 66.7
p values			Year < .001			Year < .001
Basketball	Male	224	2.98	2.16	− 27.5	46.76	22.22	− 52.5
	Female	113	2.29	1.57	− 31.4	44.06	10.92	− 75.2
	All	337	2.75	1.96	− 28.6	45.86	18.51	− 59.6
p values			Year .016			Year < .001 Gender .019
Bowls	Male	807	6.23	0.53	− 91.5	152.25	36.85	− 75.8
	Female	290	5.90	0.33	− 94.4	171.34	36.72	− 78.6
	All	1104	6.19	0.47	− 92.3	157.32	36.74	− 76.6
p values			Year < .001			Year < .001 Year × Gender .017
Boxing	Male	157	2.30	1.21	− 47.4	38.56	14.11	− 63.4
	Female	50	1.69	3.02	78.7	31.97	17.81	− 44.3
	All	208	2.14	1.63	− 24.0	36.80	14.87	− 59.6
p values			Year × Gender .042			Year < .001
Bush walking	Male	253	1.74	2.17	24.2	90.51	43.73	− 51.7
	Female	252	1.80	2.09	16.0	93.39	46.51	− 50.2
	All	507	1.77	2.12	20.0	92.01	45.07	− 51.0
p values			Year < .001
Cricket	Male	509	3.17	0.59	− 81.3	128.62	32.30	− 74.9
	Female	65	2.51	0.60	− 75.9	79.16	11.31	− 85.7
	All	575	3.09	0.59	− 80.8	122.81	29.82	− 75.7
p values			Year < .001			Year < .001 Gender < .001
Cycling	Male	709	3.52	4.10	16.7	60.94	57.47	− 5.7
	Female	388	2.73	3.48	27.2	47.00	50.39	7.2
	All	1102	3.24	3.89	19.9	55.88	54.89	− 1.8
p values			Year .002 Gender .003			Gender .002
Fitness/gym	Male	837	4.92	3.39	− 31.2	55.03	28.97	− 47.4
	Female	717	4.19	3.58	− 14.7	54.12	27.55	− 49.1
	All	1557	4.59	3.48	− 24.2	54.58	28.30	− 48.2
p values			Year < .001 Year × Gender .002			Year < .001
Football/soccer	Male	986	5.52	2.52	− 54.4	89.88	33.64	− 62.6
	Female	379	4.53	1.80	− 60.2	86.06	28.03	− 67.4
	All	1372	5.25	2.31	− 56.0	89.08	32.07	− 64.0
p values			Year < .001 Gender .001			Year < .001 Gender .031
Golf	Male	1556	4.28	1.47	− 65.6	218.18	58.14	− 73.4
	Female	686	4.57	1.17	− 74.3	229.06	50.64	− 77.9
	All	2247	4.37	1.38	− 68.5	221.54	55.83	− 74.8
p values			Year < .001			Year < .001 Year × Gender .002
Netball	Male	25	2.36	0.68	− 71.2	63.08	12.17	− 80.7
	Female	162	3.04	0.68	− 77.5	57.00	13.50	− 76.3
	All	189	2.96	0.68	− 77.1	58.27	13.16	− 77.4
p values			Year .013			Year < .001
Pilates	Male	66	2.55	1.44	− 43.3	52.73	27.50	− 47.8
	Female	236	2.24	1.94	− 13.5	46.86	24.33	− 48.1
	All	302	2.31	1.83	− 20.6	48.12	25.04	− 48.0
p values			Year < .001 Year × Gender .017			Year < .001
Running/jogging	Male	642	3.64	4.71	29.7	34.92	32.36	− 7.3
	Female	414	3.14	4.63	47.5	33.45	33.71	0.8
	All	1060	3.44	4.68	36.0		32.95	− 4.2
p values			Year < .001
Swimming	Male	528	4.45	0.78	− 82.5	58.58	13.24	− 77.4
	Female	576	6.05	1.33	− 77.9	77.64	13.77	− 82.3
	All	1110	5.28	1.07	− 79.8	68.53	13.48	− 80.3
p values			Year < .001 Gender < .001 Year x Gender .005			Year < .001 Gender < .001 Year x Gender < .001
Tennis	Male	488	3.45	1.44	− 58.2	97.69	39.20	− 59.9
	Female	370	3.26	1.19	− 63.6	110.76	33.66	− 69.6
	All	861	3.37	1.33	− 60.5	103.29	37.01	− 64.2
p values			Year < .001			Year < .001 Year x Gender .001
Walking	Male	1405	7.00	8.60	22.8	53.20	50.76	− 4.6
	Female	1159	6.52	8.61	32.1	58.16	55.47	− 4.6
	All	2571	6.79	8.61	26.8	55.42	52.90	− 4.5
p values			Year < .001
Yoga	Male	74	3.09	3.23	4.4	34.47	21.34	− 38.1
	Female	230	2.60	3.32	27.6	44.30	27.95	− 36.9
	All	308	2.72	3.30	21.2	41.69	26.31	− 36.9
p values			Year < .001 Gender .001
Other activities ^6,7	Male	573	2.61	1.25	− 52.1	84.99	31.41	− 63.0
	Female	584	3.13	2.10	− 33.0	77.57	28.36	− 63.4
	All	1166	2.91	1.68	− 42.4	81.23	29.68	− 63.5
All activities⁷	Male	10,409	4.48	2.93	− 34.5	97.42	39.26	− 59.7
	Female	6865	4.26	3.26	− 23.5	85.57	35.63	− 58.4
	Other²	31	5.35	2.10	− 60.8	67.90	16.83	− 75.2
	No response²	37	6.57	2.94	− 55.2	105.81	32.70	− 69.1
	All	17,342	4.40	3.06	− 30.4	92.69	37.78	− 59.2

¹Of the 6140 survey respondents 5371 answered the questions on sport and physical activities. They reported 19,205 instances of participation (i.e. a person reporting participation in a particular activity) in a total of 88 sports and physical activities—an average of 3.6 different activities per person. The 18 activities which each contributed at least 1% of all instances of participation are listed in this table
²Four gender response categories were provided: ‘Male’, ‘Female’, ‘Other’, and ‘Choose not to respond’ (abbreviated to ‘No response’ in the table). The ‘Other’ and ‘No response’ categories had counts, across all activities, of 31 and 37 respectively. The maximum count for an individual activity was 6. With such small sample sizes, the evidence base is small and the sampling variability is extremely large, and so for these categories the results for individual activities are not included in the table. For the aggregate results of all activities combined, results for all four gender categories are included
³Some respondents did not answer the frequency and duration questions, and so the total number of responses is 17,342 rather than 19,205. A few gave partial responses, and so the sample sizes for the four variables in this table are not exactly equal. The indicative sample sizes shown in the table are for the frequency before Covid
⁴Question wording for frequency: “Before the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in a usual 2-week period during the season for each of these sports, how many times would you participate (including any training or practice)?”; “In the past two weeks, how many times have you participated in each of these sports (including any training or practice)?”
⁵Question wording for duration: “On average, how many minutes would each session last?”; “On average, how many minutes does each session last?”
⁶Only statistically significant p values (< .05) are shown in the table
⁷ ‘Other’ encompasses the 70 activities which each contributed less than 1% of all reported instances of participation
⁸No statistical significance tests were conducted for data aggregated across multiple activities because many respondents participated in more than one activity, violating the assumption of independent observations

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ISSN: 2052-1847

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