NDLI: Daily step counts before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic: a smartphone-tracking study of university students in Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Aly, Mohamed AlMarzooqi, Mezna Mohamed, Sheref Alzahrani, Turki Mohsen Abdelkarim, Osama
Abstract	Background COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed people’s lifestyles and daily routines around the world. This study aimed to investigate changes in daily step counts – as an indicator of physical activity – before, during, and after the pandemic among university students in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and to identify regional and gender factors that may have influenced physical activity during these periods. Methods A total of 1273 university students from Egypt (Assiut University and Zagazig University) and Saudi Arabia (Taif University, King Faisal University, and Imam AbdulRahman Bin Faisal University) provided valid data on their daily step counts recorded by a smartphone application (iPhone Health App) from January 2019 to December 2021. The data was divided and averaged based on three periods: the pre-pandemic year (January to December 2019), the first pandemic year (January to December 2020), and the second pandemic year (January to December 2021). Results The results showed a significant decrease in daily steps from pre-pandemic to the first pandemic year, followed by an increase in the second pandemic year. However, daily step counts did not fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in male Egyptian and marginally in male Saudi participants. In both nationalities, female participants did not show a significant difference in daily steps between the pre-pandemic and second-pandemic years. Female Egyptian participants had significantly lower daily step counts than male Egyptian participants, and a gender difference in daily steps was also observed in Saudi female participants in the pre-pandemic and the second pandemic year but not during the first pandemic year. Conclusion These findings outline the need for strategies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior, especially among young women, to mitigate the negative consequences of COVID-19 and meet physical activity guidelines.
Related Links	https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-023-16068-x.pdf
Ending Page	7
Page Count	7
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14712458
DOI	10.1186/s12889-023-16068-x
Journal	BMC Public Health
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	23
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2023-07-17
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Public Health Medicine Epidemiology Biostatistics Vaccine Environmental Health COVID-19 Daily step counts Physical activity University students Medicine/Public Health
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Journal Impact Factor	3.5/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	3.9/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
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9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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