Effect of COVID-19-Related Home Confinement on Sleep Quality, Screen Time and Physical Activity in Tunisian Boys and Girls: A Survey

Rihab Abid, Achraf Ammar, Rami Maaloul, Nizar Souissi and Omar Hammouda
Additional contact information
Rihab Abid: Research Unit: Physical Activity, Sport, and Health, UR18JS01, National Observatory of Sport, Tunis 1003, Tunisia
Achraf Ammar: Institute of Sport Science, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
Rami Maaloul: Research Laboratory, Molecular Bases of Human Pathology, LR19ES13, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sfax, Sfax 3029, Tunisia
Nizar Souissi: Research Unit: Physical Activity, Sport, and Health, UR18JS01, National Observatory of Sport, Tunis 1003, Tunisia
Omar Hammouda: Interdisciplinary Laboratory in Neurosciences, Physiology and Psychology: Physical Activity, Health and Learning (LINP2), UPL, Paris Nanterre University, UFR STAPS, 92000 Nanterre, France

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: COVID-19 home confinement has led to a stressful situation for children around the world and affected their lifestyle. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of these restrictions on sleep quality, screen time (ST) and physical activity (PA) in Tunisian children with a special focus on gender differences. An online survey was launched in April 2020. Questions were presented in a differential format, with expected responses related to “before” and “during” confinement. Participants (52 boys and 48 girls, age: 8.66 ± 3.3 years) responded to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the digital media use, and the Ricci and Gagnon sedentary behavior questionnaires. Findings revealed that COVID19 home confinement had a negative effect on all the considered parameters ( p < 0.05). Significant effects of gender were found on sleep disturbances ( p = 0.016, np 2 = 0.05), subjective sleep quality ( p < 0.01, np 2 = 0.07), global score of PSQI ( p = 0.01, np 2 = 0.01) and nocturnal and global screen time ( p < 0.001, np 2 = 0.09) with poorer sleep and higher screen time in girls compared to boys during home confinement. A significant correlation was shown between Global ST and PSQI score (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). Programs of PA for children and sensitization campaigns against the use of screens have been deemed urgent with special focus oriented to girls.

Keywords: COVID-19; confinement; sleep quality; screen time; physical activity; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3065/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3065/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3065-:d:518036

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().