Physical Activity Levels, Related Energy Expenditure and Body Mass Index During COVID-19 Quarantine : A Cross-Sectional Online Survey Study

Physical Activity Levels and Related Energy Expenditure during COVID-19 Quarantine among Active Population: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey Study
Introduction
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a direct representation of pneumonia as it contains a complete unknown etiology. The first time the virus made came to light was in Wuhan city, in the Hubei province of China on 31st December 2019. A month later on 7th January 2020, Chinese research made a milestone by providing results that discovered a novel coronavirus (CoV) that had a distinct genetic sequence and thus advanced the name "2019-nCoV". Afterward, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease caused by the virus "COVID-19". With the prevalence of the outbreak in China and its main mode of transmission being human-to-human transmission, the COVID-19 virus started to spread worldwide very quickly. It is in this regard that the WHO on 30th January 2020 declared a state of global health emergency and later on, led to the definition of COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11th March 2020.
With no vaccine that has been developed to counter-attack the pandemic, governments have been forced to adopt strategies that are aimed to limit the spread of the virus. In Europe for example, Italy became the first country to be hit hard by the pandemic and thus implemented direct measures to curb the catastrophe from increasing. It had initially reported its first case on 21st February and because the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading like wildfire, it was imminent for Italy to declare a state of quarantine. With the implementation of the necessary measures, the lives of the populace drastically changed. Among the measures promoted by the government are, social distancing, suspension of social events, which included professional and non-professional sporting activities, closure of schools and universities. These same strategies were adopted by nearly all countries around the world and so far, prevented the virus from spreading as fast as it was initially. We have seen access to swimming pools, public parks and gardens, gyms, and sports centers are prohibited. This has led to home-based recreational activities being highly encouraged but not in a group based while at the same time the one meter from other persons' rule of social distancing being respected. Since the adoption of these measures, it is, therefore, imperative that people cope up with the limiting conditions to safeguard the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The measures have since proved to help curtail the spread of the pandemic.
Physical activity is a pivotal part of the public health system as researches have shown that physical inactivity is responsible for over 5 million deaths worldwide. The economy of public health encourages physical activity as the driving force to good health and the prevention of many opportunistic diseases. Thus, with the wave of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, and the governments adopting measures to curb the spread of the virus, the impact on the population will mean that people will practice low levels of PA. Swimming is an integral part of public health as it is associated with curbing cardiovascular diseases. Maintaining a physically active lifestyle can help decrease the risk of all kinds of di...