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 5 Changes in self-reported frequency and duration of 18 popular forms of sport and physical activity¹ from before Covid to during Covid: adolescents (aged 13–17) 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	n³	Frequency⁴ (sessions per 14 days)			Duration⁵ (minutes per session)
p values⁶			Mean before Covid	Mean during Covid	Change %	Mean before Covid	Mean during Covid	Change %
Athletics	Male	48	1.67	1.20	− 28.3	40.89	18.33	− 55.2
	Female	28	6.29	2.50	− 60.2	51.43	33.93	− 34.0
	All	76	3.37	1.69	− 49.9	44.83	24.57	− 45.2
p values						Year < .001
Australian football	Male	51	2.73	1.69	− 37.9	54.80	25.31	− 53.8
	Female	43	2.79	0.91	− 67.5	69.74	14.30	− 79.5
	All	94	2.76	1.33	− 51.9	61.78	20.11	− 67.5
p values			Year < .001			Year < .001 Year x Gender .042
Basketball	Male	111	3.41	3.19	− 6.5	46.62	27.32	− 41.4
	Female	35	2.54	3.09	21.3	43.09	14.85	− 65.5
	All	146	3.21	3.17	− 1.2	45.78	24.36	− 46.8
p values						Year < .001
Cricket	Male	67	2.69	0.33	− 87.6	69.85	16.39	− 76.5
	Female	20	3.65	0.55	− 84.9	61.00	18.95	− 68.9
	All	87	2.91	0.38	− 86.8	67.79	17.00	− 74.9
p values			Year < .001			Year < .001
Cycling	Male	101	3.80	5.47	43.9	55.81	53.65	− 3.9
	Female	66	1.35	3.33	147.2	33.15	46.36	39.8
	All	169	2.86	4.64	62.5	46.44	50.55	8.8
p values			Year < .001 Gender < .001			Year .038 Gender .033
Dancing	Male	2	2.00	2.00	0.0	40.00	30.00	− 25.0
	Female	25	4.88	5.04	3.3	51.04	41.00	− 19.7
	All	27	4.67	4.92	5.4	50.60	40.56	− 19.8
p values			–			–
Fitness/Gym	Male	131	5.10	5.83	14.3	50.82	42.30	− 16.8
	Female	106	3.97	5.73	44.4	53.19	33.43	− 37.1
	All	237	4.59	5.79	25.9	51.88	38.25	− 26.3
p values			Year .012			Year < .001
Football/soccer	Male	365	6.93	4.35	− 37.3	89.81	45.87	− 48.9
	Female	129	4.84	2.63	− 45.8	85.78	35.25	− 58.9
	All	497	6.40	3.89	− 39.2	88.93	43.10	− 51.5
p values			Year < .001 Gender .001			Year < .001
Golf	Male	28	2.75	2.50	− 9.1	121.85	31.85	− 73.9
	Female	4	1.75	0.00	− 100.0	30.00	0.00	− 100.0
	All	32	2.63	2.17	− 17.5	110.00	27.74	− 74.8
p values						Year .021 Gender .028
Netball	Male	4	1.75	0.75	− 57.1	26.25	12.50	− 52.4
	Female	62	3.02	0.74	− 75.4	65.68	18.39	− 72.0
	All	68	2.97	0.72	− 75.7	64.37	17.46	− 72.9
p values			Year .002
Running/jogging	Male	144	4.69	6.03	28.4	34.76	35.76	2.9
	Female	110	3.30	4.43	34.1	28.89	32.48	12.4
	All	254	4.09	5.33	30.3	32.26	34.33	6.4
p values			Year .014
Skating/scootering	Male	19	2.95	1.94	− 34.1	43.42	29.71	− 31.6
	Female	17	3.82	3.53	− 7.7	37.35	35.59	− 4.7
	All	36	3.36	2.74	− 18.6	40.56	32.65	− 19.5
p values			–			–
Surf Lifesaving	Male	14	1.50	0.46	− 69.2	137.86	19.09	− 86.2
	Female	18	3.06	0.39	− 87.3	74.44	16.47	− 77.9
	All	32	2.38	0.42	− 82.3	102.19	17.50	− 82.9
p values			Year < .001 Time x Gender .015			Year < .001
Swimming	Male	120	5.71	1.43	− 74.9	77.96	22.20	− 71.5
	Female	172	9.42	1.78	− 81.1	106.92	18.85	− 82.4
	All	294	7.86	1.63	− 79.3	95.04	20.02	− 78.9
p values			Year < .001 Gender < .001 Time x Gender < .001			Year < .001 Gender .001 Time x Gender < .001
Tennis	Male	81	3.56	0.73	− 79.4	64.29	26.70	− 58.5
	Female	32	5.13	1.94	− 62.2	77.90	29.80	− 61.7
	All	113	4.00	1.08	− 72.9	68.19	27.64	− 59.5
p values			Year < .001 Gender .002			Year < .001
Volleyball	Male	12	1.58	0.00	− 100.0	29.17	24.09	− 17.4
	Female	12	1.17	0.00	− 100.0	48.75	3.33	− 93.2
	All	26	1.58	0.00	− 100.0	43.65	12.20	− 72.1
p values			Year < .001 Gender .002			Year .001 Time x Gender .001
Walking	Male	87	5.41	7.60	40.3	43.31	38.48	− 11.2
	Female	104	5.68	6.20	9.1	38.59	46.07	19.4
	All	193	5.60	6.88	22.9	40.58	42.92	5.8
p values			Year.015			Year .035
Other activities^7,8	Male	75	3.13	1.93	− 38.4	65.76	32.31	− 50.9
	Female	82	3.14	2.72	− 13.5	84.64	37.89	− 55.2
	All	160	3.14	2.32	− 26.0	76.55	34.79	− 54.6
All activities⁸	Male	1460	4.73	3.75	− 20.6	64.90	35.79	− 44.9
	Female	1065	4.73	3.15	− 33.4	65.06	30.43	− 53.2
	No response²	16	5.25	3.06	− 41.7	84.69	21.88	− 74.2
	All	2541	4.73	3.49	− 26.2	65.10	33.40	− 48.7

¹Of the 584 survey respondents identified by age as adolescent, 580 answered the questions on sport and physical activities. They reported 2822 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 4.9 different activities per person. The 17 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 0 and 16 respectively. The maximum count for an individual activity was 3. With such small sample sizes, the evidence base is small and the sampling variability is extremely large, and so for this category 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 2541 rather than 2822. 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 71 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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