Physical activity levels and mental health burden of healthcare workers during COVID‐19 lockdown

• Published in: Stress and Health Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 171 - 179
• Main Authors: Kua, Zaylea, Hamzah, Fadzil, Tan, Pei T., Ong, Li J., Tan, Benedict, Huang, Zhongwei
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2022; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Anxiety; Communicable Disease Control; COVID-19; Cross-Sectional Studies; depression; Depression - epidemiology; Exercise; Health care; Health Personnel; Humans; Medical personnel; Mental depression; Mental Health; Organizational stress interventions/prevention; Pandemics; Physical activity; Physical fitness; Physical training; Risk factors; SARS-CoV-2; Shelter in place; Short Communication; Short Communications; stress; Organizational stress interventions/prevention; anxiety; stress; depression; mental health; physical activity
• ISSN: 1532-3005; 1532-2998
• DOI: 10.1002/smi.3078

The outbreak of COVID‐19 has precipitated international lockdown measures to curb disease transmissions. The closure of public activity spaces as well as changes in pandemic workload may disrupt healthcare workers' physical activity and self‐care routines. We sought to examine the association between physical activity levels and mental health burden of healthcare workers during the COVID‐19 lockdown in Singapore. This cross‐sectional study comprised of an multidomain survey that was administered digitally to 707 healthcare workers between 17 May and 18 June 2020. Exercise frequency, duration and intensity of these healthcare workers had reduced significantly during the lockdown compared to pre‐lockdown. 25.3%, 37.2%, and 11.9% had screened positive for moderate‐to‐extremely‐severe depression, anxiety and stress respectively. Reductions in exercise duration was a significant risk factor for mild stress and moderate‐to‐severe depression while increase in exercise frequency was found to be a protective factor against depressed mood. Our study revealed that a short‐term reduction in physical activity levels during lockdown was associated with poorer psychological outcomes. Given the protection that exercise confers on depression, physical activity should be promoted at the workplace and at home to support healthcare workers to cope through this protracted health crisis.