Mudança na quantidade e qualidade do sono durante o período da pandemia de Covid-19 e a associação com atividade física e comportamento sedentário

Abstract

The year 2020 was marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, with countries around the world adopting some form of social isolation, including Brazil. More time at home resulting from the restrictions imposed by the pandemic has been associated with changes in the pattern of physical activity and sedentary behaviors, as well as in the sleep pattern. The present study investigated possible changes in sleep quality and duration during the Covid-19 pandemic and the association with physical activity and sedentary behavior. This is a cross-sectional study, based on a sample of 771 adult university students, who joined the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) in 2019. Data collection was carried out via the web, between August 2020 and March 2021, using a questionnaire sent by email to all students. In 2019, 4115 students enrolled. Of these 3973 had active e-mail, 1 refused to sign the consent form and 771 responded to the questionnaire. To minimize the effects of the high non-response rate (80.6%) a weighting was performed according to sex and course. In the analyses, expanded prevalences, a 95% confidence interval and association estimators were used by logistic regression using the SAS software survey procedure. Multinomial logistic regression compared worsening to the improved sleep/no change category. The weighted prevalence of physical inactivity, defined as not achieving 150 minutes of physical activity per week, was 51.7% in women and 41.4% in men. As for the sedentary time, only 24.8% of the sample showed to spend less than 8 hours a day in these behaviors. More than 50% of the population reported worsening sleep quality, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression. Only 16.2% of students reported improved sleep. There was an increase in the prevalence of students with excessive sleep duration (10.5%), which was not associated with the pattern of physical activity. As for sleep quality, compared to inactive students, active students did not present significant protection for sleep worsening (OR: 0.9; 95% CI: 0.65 – 1.35), not even when stratified by anxiety, depression or time of isolation. Sedentary individuals also showed no significant association with sleep quality. It is concluded that the pandemic negatively affected the health of university students, worsening sleep and presenting more sedentary time. The worsening of sleep was not attenuated by the practice of physical activity.