Exploring Barriers and Facilitators to Physical Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study
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Abstract
Quantitative data show that physical activity (PA) reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, with differential impacts across demographic groups. Qualitative research is limited; thus, this study aimed to understand barriers and facilitators to PA during the pandemic, focusing on groups more likely to have been affected by restrictions, and to map these onto the capability, opportunity, motivation model of behaviour (COM-B). One-to-one interviews were conducted with younger (aged 18–24) and older adults (aged 70+), those with long-term physical or mental health conditions, and parents of young children. Themes were identified using reflexive thematic analysis and were mapped onto COM-B domains. A total of 116 participants contributed (aged 18–93, 61% female, 71% White British). Key themes were the importance of the outdoor environment, impact of COVID-19 restrictions, fear of contracting COVID-19, and level of engagement with home exercise. Caring responsibilities and conflicting priorities were a barrier. PA as a method of socialising, establishing new routines, and the importance of PA for protecting mental health were motivators. Most themes mapped onto the physical opportunity (environmental factors) and reflective motivation (evaluations/plans) COM-B domains. Future interventions should target these domains during pandemics (e.g., adapting PA guidance depending on location and giving education on the health benefits of PA).
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SciScore for 10.1101/2022.05.18.22275240: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Consent: Participants were eligible if they were living in the UK, identified with one or more of the target groups, had good understanding of English and were willing and able to provide informed consent (or parental consent was given for adolescents).
IRB: Ethical approval was provided by the University College London (UCL) research ethics committee ((project identifier 14895/005), and all participants provided informed written consent.Sex as a biological variable Interviewers were male and female postgraduate researchers who had prior experience of conducting qualitative interviews with people experiencing physical and mental health difficulties, and vulnerable groups. Randomization Then, … SciScore for 10.1101/2022.05.18.22275240: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Consent: Participants were eligible if they were living in the UK, identified with one or more of the target groups, had good understanding of English and were willing and able to provide informed consent (or parental consent was given for adolescents).
IRB: Ethical approval was provided by the University College London (UCL) research ethics committee ((project identifier 14895/005), and all participants provided informed written consent.Sex as a biological variable Interviewers were male and female postgraduate researchers who had prior experience of conducting qualitative interviews with people experiencing physical and mental health difficulties, and vulnerable groups. Randomization Then, initial codes were generated inductively from a randomly selected sub-set of six transcripts, second coded by AB and AF. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Therefore, coding and the subsequent processes of thematic analysis; generation, reviewing and grouping of themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Braun & Clarke, 2021) were conducted for the remaining interviews by CR using Microsoft Excel and NVIVO12. Microsoft Excelsuggested: (Microsoft Excel, RRID:SCR_016137)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:Finally, it is important to consider the merits and limitations of this study. Particularly, this study had a large sample size of 116 semi-structured interviews, which enabled inclusion of a broad range of views and experiences. Furthermore, three researchers met regularly throughout data analysis to discuss themes and to ensure that thematic analysis was applied appropriately. Thirdly, this study gives context to the quantitative findings relating to PA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourthly, in conjunction with the COM-B model (Michie et al., 2011), this study can be used to consider intervention components for increasing PA in future lockdowns and pandemics. However, this study also has several limitations. Firstly, the interviews were with individuals who were predominantly female, white British and educated to degree level, which limits the range of perspectives represented. The use of online and telephone interviews may also have excluded those who did not have online access. Additionally, as the CSS focused on broader mental health effects of the pandemic on several aspects of life, the depth of reflections relating to PA may be limited, however all participants were explicitly asked to reflect on their PA both before and during the pandemic. In conclusion, this study is the first to explore barriers and facilitators to PA for different demographic groups during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to map these onto a theoretical framework to aid understanding of PA behaviours ...
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.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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