Investigating the Effect of Physical Activity Levels of Municipality Employees on their Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to determine the effect of Physical Activity (PA) levels of municipal employees between the ages of 18-65 on Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors (HLB) according to their age, education level, and marital status during the COVID-19 pandemic period. A total of 368 volunteer personnel between the ages of 18 and 65 working in various directorates and positions of Bornova Municipality, such as Press and Broadcasting, Culture and Social Affairs, Police, Social Aid Affairs, Veterinary, Parks and Gardens, Financial Services, Zoning, Legal Affairs, Security and Support Services, were included in the study After a detailed explanation about the study was given to the participants, the Personal Information Form, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) Short Form, and the HLB Scale II were applied. As a result of the analysis, statistically significant low-level negative relationships were found between the participants' PA scores and their ages (p<.05). It was found that the participants' PA scores showed statistically significant differences according to their marital status, occupational group and childbearing status (p<.05); and that they did not show statistically significant differences according to their body mass index, smoking/alcohol use status, social security status, education status and type of residence (p>.05). In addition, a low-level statistically significant negative relationship was found between their HLB scores and age (p<.05). It was found that the PA, nutrition, stress management sub-dimensions and HLB total scores showed statistically significant differences according to marital status (p<.05); and the HLB sub-dimensions and total scores showed statistically significant differences according to childbearing status (p<.05). As a result, it was observed that as the PA levels of municipal employees increased during the COVID-19 period, both the HLB sub-dimensions and the HLB total scores would increase. This situation shows the effect of FA levels on HLB.