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. 2021 Aug 18;18(16):8732.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18168732.

Objective Behavioral Measures in Children before, during, and after the COVID-19 Lockdown in Israel

Einat Shneor  1 , Ravid Doron  1 , Jonathan Levine  1 , Deena Rachel Zimmerman  2 , Julia S Benoit  3   4 , Lisa A Ostrin  4 , Ariela Gordon-Shaag  1
Affiliations

Objective Behavioral Measures in Children before, during, and after the COVID-19 Lockdown in Israel

Einat Shneor et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Studies using questionnaires report that COVID-19 restrictions resulted in children spending significantly less time outdoors. This study used objective measures to assess the impact of pandemic-related restrictions on children's behavior. A total of 19 healthy 8-12-year-old boys were observed before and during social restriction periods. Of these, 11 boys were reassessed after restrictions were lifted. For each session, Actiwatches were dispensed for measures of time outdoors, activity, and sleep. Changes overall and by school status were assessed using signed-rank test and Wilcoxon rank sum tests. During restrictions, children spent significantly less time outdoors (p = 0.001), were less active (p = 0.001), and spent less time engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (p = 0.004). Sleep duration was not significantly different between sessions (p > 0.99), but bedtime and wake time shifted to a later time during restrictions (p < 0.05 for both). Time outdoors and activity returned close to pre-pandemic levels after restrictions were lifted (p > 0.05 for both). Children's behaviors significantly changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reduction in outdoor light exposure is of importance due to the role of light in the etiology of myopia and vitamin D production. The reduction in physical activity may have negative health effects in terms of obesity and depression, although further research is required to ascertain the long-term effects.

Keywords: COVID-19; myopia; pandemic; physical activity; sleep.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of Social Restrictions and Data Collection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plot illustrating different behaviors pre-pandemic, during restrictions and post-restrictions: (a) Mean daily physical activity (from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); (b) Mean moderate-to-vigorous daily physical activity (from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); (c) Mean daily time outdoors (from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); (d) Mean daily sleep duration (hours); (e) wake time; (f) bedtime. Pre-pandemic (black bars), during restrictions (gray bars), and post-restrictions (white bars) (n = 11); Solid horizontal line indicates the median, and the box extends between the 25th and 75th percentile of the data, and the whiskers extend to the smaller of the full range or 1.5 times the interquartile range of the data. * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.001 for post-hoc pairwise test with Bonferroni correction between sessions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plot illustrating different behaviors pre-pandemic, during restrictions and post-restrictions: (a) Mean daily physical activity (from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); (b) Mean moderate-to-vigorous daily physical activity (from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); (c) Mean daily time outdoors (from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); (d) Mean daily sleep duration (hours); (e) wake time; (f) bedtime. Pre-pandemic (black bars), during restrictions (gray bars), and post-restrictions (white bars) (n = 11); Solid horizontal line indicates the median, and the box extends between the 25th and 75th percentile of the data, and the whiskers extend to the smaller of the full range or 1.5 times the interquartile range of the data. * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.001 for post-hoc pairwise test with Bonferroni correction between sessions.
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