It has been quite a long time since the fatal virus, named coronavirus or widely known as COVID 19, had disabled the mobility of the world. This has been due to the fact that the virus could be transmitted through human contact, may it be direct or indirect. However, the most common mean of transmission of the said virus is through physical contact. As per current evidences, the virus spreads mainly with close contact of people, typically with ranges as short as one (1) meter (WHO, 2020). This situation could worsen when an infected person is with all other non-infected people in a poorly ventilated or crowded indoor places, where aerosols remain on the air and would travel around for more than 1 meter. With the restrictions that had been implemented in different places, this study aimed to identify how does COVID 19 affect the frequency of physical activities amidst its occurrence.
McCombes (2019) defined the descriptive research as a method aiming to accurately and systematically describe a population, situation, or even a phenomenon. Since this study is aiming to describe the impact of COVID 19 to the frequency of physical activities nowadays, the researchers had seen this research design the most fitting amongst all others.
This study is quantitative by nature. To fulfill its quantitative approach, the researchers utilized a questionnaire composed of close-ended questions incorporated with a set of choices. The questionnaire was employed through Microsoft forms.
The working population from Canada, British Columbia have been the respondents of this study. The researchers randomly picked sixty-three (63) individuals that works either part-time or full-time. This was done through convenience sampling, where the researchers picked individuals who were available on the moment.
The questionnaires were distributed online through Microsoft forms. Before answering, the respondents were briefed on the purpose of the study and were assured that the data collected from them will solely be used for this study. After answering the forms, the collected data was later on reviewed and analyzed to extract the relevant results. Data gathered were presented in tabular form and will be described and interpreted for further understanding.
Table 1 shows the respondents who were physically active before the restrictions made due to the pandemic. From the results, out of 63 respondents, 48 (76.9%) have been physically active before the pandemic. Whilst the other 15 (23.81%) were not physically active.
Before the pandemic, 27 out of 63 respondents did outdoor physical activities such as walking or biking and 21 had done both indoor and outdoor activities. Meanwhile, during the pandemic, there is an evident decrease on respondents doing outdoor physical activities, accumulating only 21 out of 63. The respondents that did indoor activities rose up to 24, while 9 of them did both. Lastly, after the lockdown, 26 respondents did outdoor activities, 17 did indoor activities, 16 did both, and 4 have not been active.
As for the frequency of engaging in physical activities before the pandemic, 23 respondents did physical activities 1 – 2 days a week, and 17 had done it every once in a while. During the pandemic, 18 respondents did engage on physical activities every once in a while, and one visible rise during this period, those who never engaged in physical activities during the pandemic, rose up to 10. On the other hand, after the lockdown, 18 respondents are having their physical activities once in a while, 17 did 3 – 4 days a week, and 14 did 1 – 2 days a week.
After gathering the data from the survey, the results analyzed had showed answers to the aim of this study: to identify how does COVID 19 affect the frequency of physical activities amidst its occurrence. The main themes that emerged from the survey would be discussed in this section.
Physical activity of the respondents. Before the pandemic, it was shown that majority of the respondents had been physically active, since most of them works full time, thus requiring physical strength for everyday work to be accomplished.
Before the pandemic, the number of respondents that did outdoor physical activities is higher than those who do indoor activities with a wide gap. However, when the pandemic started, those who did indoor physical activities rose up by half, which is the result of restrictions on the mobility of the public, as part of prevention on the spread of the virus.
Majority of the respondents had been engaging to physical activities at least 1 – 2 days every week before pandemic. However, due to restrictions, this number dropped down and those who never engage in such relatively rose up. As the lockdown had made people realize of things that can be done at home, the respondents engage on physical activities every 1 – 2 days a week and 3 – 4 days a week rose up again.