Covid-19 lockdown: Ethnic differences in children’s self-reported physical activity and the importance of leaving the home environment; a longitudinal and cross-sectional study from the Born in Bradford birth cohort study

  1. Daniel D. Bingham
  2. Andy Daly-Smith
  3. Jennifer Hall
  4. Amanda Seims
  5. Sufyan A. Dogra
  6. Stuart J. Fairclough
  7. Mildred Ajebon
  8. Brian Kelly
  9. Bo Hou
  10. Katy A. Shire
  11. Kirsty L. Crossley
  12. Mark Mon-Williams
  13. John Wright
  14. Kate Pickett
  15. Rosemary McEachan
  16. Josie Dickerson
  17. Sally E. Barber
  18. the Bradford Institute for Health Research COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group

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Abstract

Background

In England, the onset of COVID-19 and a rapidly increasing infection rate resulted in a lockdown (March-June 2020) which placed strict restrictions on movement of the public, including children. Using data collected from children living in a multi-ethnic city with high levels of deprivation, this study aimed to: (1) report children’s self-reported physical activity (PA) during the first COVID-19 UK lockdown and identify associated factors; (2) examine changes of children’s self-reported PA prior to and during the first UK lockdown.

Methods

This study is part of the Born in Bradford (BiB) COVID-19 Research Study. PA (amended Youth Activity Profile), sleep, sedentary behaviours, daily frequency/time/destination/activity when leaving the home, were self-reported by 949 children (9–13 years). A sub-sample (n = 634) also self-reported PA (Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children) pre-pandemic (2017-February 2020). Univariate analysis assessed differences in PA between sex and ethnicity groups; multivariable logistic regression identified factors associated with children’s PA. Differences in children's levels of being sufficiently active prior to and during the lockdown were examined using the McNemar test; and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors explaining change.

Results

During the pandemic, White British (WB) children were more sufficiently active (34.1%) compared to Pakistani Heritage children (PH) (22.8%) or ‘Other’ ethnicity children (O) (22.8%). WB children reported leaving the home more frequently and for longer periods than PH and O children. Modifiable variables related to being sufficiently active were frequency, duration, type of activity, and destination away from the home environment. There was a large reduction in children being sufficiently active during the first COVID-19 lockdown (28.9%) compared to pre-pandemic (69.4%).

Conclusions

Promoting safe extended periods of PA everyday outdoors is important for all children, in particular for children from ethnic minority groups. Children’s PA during the first COVID-19 UK lockdown has drastically reduced from before. Policy and decision makers, and practitioners should consider the findings in order to begin to understand the impact and consequences that COVID-19 has had upon children’s PA which is a key and vital behaviour for health and development.

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  1. Version published to 10.1186/s12966-021-01183-y
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.02.26.21252543: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Participants and procedure: Participants were children aged 9-13 who were invited to take part in the BiB COVID-19 research study26 following a protocol approved by the Health Research Authority and Bradford/Leeds research ethics committee (reference: 16/YH/0320).
    Consent: Following verbal consent from parents/carers, children received a survey via post to be completed and returned to the research team using pre-paid envelopes.26 Completion of the survey was deemed as participation assent from the child.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableSetting: Bradford is the fifth largest metropolitan district in England with a population of 530,000.24 It is a ethnically diverse city situated in the North of England, with almost half of the births in the city are to women of South Asian (mostly Pakistani)

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All analysis was conducted using Stata v15.0 (StataCorp.,
    Stata
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The limitations of this study include use of two different child self-reported PA questionnaires (for pre and during COVID) with one questionnaire (amended-YAP) not being formally validated. The BiB study had previously used the validated PAQ-C questionnaire due to availability of children’s questionnaires for previous cohort data collection25, before the YAP had been published. In the current study, the PAQ-C was decided by authors not to be suitable for use during lockdown with the majority of children not attending school and being restricted to their homes. A further limitation is that causality of the variables associated with PA-guidelines cannot be implied, and neither can the direction of association, this is due to the cross-sectional nature of data presented. However, the circumstances of COVID-19 and the ability to rapidly survey and receive data from 979 children and continue to follow and collect further data in the future, is a strength of this city-wide cohort study. The ongoing study is providing insights into the lives of children’s and families during an ongoing pandemic and provide scientific insight for policy makers to make evidence informed decisions and guidance.26, 58

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.02.26.21252543v2 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1101/2021.02.26.21252543v1 on medRxiv