During the early months of the pandemic, when people, politicians and medical professionals alike struggled to understand the dimensions of the emerging crisis, fear spread rapidly throughout society. In North America and around the world, lockdown measures added to the anxiety. Soon economies were spiraling into recession. No one knew when it would all end. As 2020 continued to deliver shocks to the system, it was easy to predict that many individuals would face mental health challenges. Less understood at the time was the eventual reality that millions of kids would sink into depression. Separated from classmates, classrooms, activities and outdoor recreation, they struggled to develop on their own, guided only by frazzled parents and lessons learned from the omnipresent iPad. A new study from Ontario’s COVID-19 advisory panel has measured the extent of this damage. As kids and their families became largely inactive, mental distress soared. The report confirms that young children carried the heaviest burdens. Citing guidelines developed by the World Health Organization, the panel contends that even 1- to 2-year-olds need at least three hours of physical activity each day. The recommendation is an hour a day for older individuals and 150 daily minutes of exercise and activity for seniors. The panel notes that half of Canadians were falling short of these standards even before COVID. Among post-secondary students, just 10 percent were meeting or exceeding the guidelines. “Patterns of declining rates of physical activity worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, as Ontarians and other Canadians were significantly less active and even more sedentary,” the panel concluded. “Global data indicates that participation in physical activity has been associated with improved quality of life, well-being, and reduced depressive symptoms and anxiety during the pandemic.” The report notes that although loss of social and recreational opportunities was a big part of the problem, so was the nature of the activities which filled the void. Isolated from friends and deprived of the ability to visit the park, run across a field or score a goal in soccer, kids withdrew into a virtual world, a liquid-crystal-screen reality: “A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of 65 studies on the effects of the pandemic on SB (sedentary behaviour) showed that across all age groups (children and youth, adults), SB increased during the pandemic and was attributable to increased ‘screen time’ or greater use of computers or other devices. … Increased time spent in SB was associated with poorer overall mental health and increased risk of depression and anxiety across all age groups. A more recently published Canadian study reported that increases in SB were evident within the first month of the pandemic. Thus, both increased SB and reduced PA (physical activity) during the pandemic have been linked to poorer mental health outcomes, while maintenance or increase of pre-pandemic levels of PA was associated with better mental health in Canada and globally.” Comments are closed.
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AuthorDr. Angela Carol MD,CCFP,FCFP is a family physician focused on treating chronic illnesses. Archives
May 2022
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