Sedentary Screen Time in Working Adults Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the sedentary screen time (SST) of working individuals before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred eighty-nine female and 313 male, a total of 602 (aged between 18-64 years) working adults participated in this study. In order to calculate the duration of sedentary behavior (SB) at work and home, participants were asked to complete the work and household indexes of the Physical Activity Assessment Questionnaire (PAAQ) for Turkish people developed by Karaca et al. (2000). The results of statistical analyses indicated that recreational sedentary screen time (recreational SST) during COVID-19 was higher than before COVID-19 in both genders, in all age groups and all income groups (p <0.05). Sedentary screen time at work during COVID-19 was lower than before COVID-19 in both genders aged between 45-64 of moderate and high income groups (p 0.05). As a result, it was concluded that the SST in the workplace during COVID-19 decreased by about two hours per week, while recreational SST increased by about 10 hours per week compared to the period before COVID-19.