Longitudinal multilevel modeling of physical activity during COVID19 social distancing and its relationship with resilience

Abstract This longitudinal study addressed the relationship between physical activity (PA) and resilience in individuals during home confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 581 Spanish citizens were recruited via a snowball sampling strategy to complete an online questionnaire providing personal information and people’s levels of PA and resilience during the lockdown over four phases of data collection. Mixed models for repeated measures and restricted cubic splines were specified. During the confinement period moderate PA increased by 47.83%, Vigorous PA by 39.52%, and Moderate-to-Vigorous PA by 44.40%. The number of people meeting the World Health Organization global recommendations for PA increased by 13.7%. Cubic splines showed that self-efficacy was positively associated with the weekly amount of any type of PA, indicating the importance of having confidence in the ability to exert control over one’s own behavior in this context. The results of this study are encouraging and highlight the important role of PA during stressful circumstances.