Physical Activity Levels and Mental Illness Risk in Elderly Women during COVID-19

• Autor(a) principal: Encarnação, Samuel Gonçalves Almeida da
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Moreira, Osvaldo Costa, Castro Pinto, Beatriz Woyames Ferreira de, Miranda, Cíntia Neves de, Silva Araújo, Daniele Pereira da, Pereira, Felipe Soares Tomaz, Fazolo, Sthéfany Lemos, Carneiro-Júnior, Miguel Araújo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.6063/motricidade.27174
• topic: Original Article

This research aimed to verify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental illness risk (MIR) and confirm the association of PA levels with MIR in elderly women during the COVID-19 pandemic. This experimental longitudinal study involved 44 elderly women aged 67.3± 5.3 years. The SRQ-20 and IPAQ were applied from February 2020 to February 2021, prior to the onset and during the pandemic. Significant increase (242%) of positive responses to MIR between the two periods (p= 0.002, February: 7 vs August: 17, (X2 (1)= 8.51; p= 0.003, RR= 3.02). Regarding PA levels, there was a significant increase (566%) with a large effect size (ES) in the number of elderly women with low PA levels, from 3 in February to 20 in August, p= 0.0001, V= 1. There was a significant reduction (450%) with high ES of 18 elderly women with high levels of PA from February to 4 in August, p= 0.0001, V= 1. An inverse correlation was identified, with moderate ES between the levels of MIR and PA during the pandemic, r= -0.40, R2= 0.16. The COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in the MIR of elderly women with a moderate inverse association with PA levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.