Table 1.
Percent (and N) distribution of health behaviours and changes during the pandemic by study
| MCS | NS | BCS70 | NCDS | GS | USOC | ELSA | ALSPAC G0 | ALSPAC G1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age range of participants | 18–20 | 29–31 | 50 | 62 | 27–66 | 17–66 | 52–66 | 44–66 | 27–29 |
| N participants | 1924 | 1493 | 3050 | 4195 | 2618 | 6051 | 2417 | 2071 | 1273 |
| Diet | |||||||||
| Pre-pandemic: ≤ 2 portions of fruit and vegetables, % (n) | 39 (657) | 27.8 (384) | 24.9 (673) | 22.4 (853) | NA | 26.5 (1070) | NA | NA | NA |
| During pandemic: ≤ 2 portions of fruit and vegetables, % (n) | 33.3 (564) | 26.1 (393) | 25.3 (676) | 21.9 (808) | NA | 29.3 (1271) | NA | NA | NA |
| Eating fewer portions of fruit and vegetables, % (n) | 17.1 (365) | 15.2 (282) | 14.9 (450) | 10.9 (419) | NA | 48.2 (2823) | NA | NA | NA |
| Eating more portions of fruit and vegetables, % (n) | 32 (651) | 21.5 (344) | 17.2 (528) | 14.6 (655) | NA | 42.2 (2596) | NA | NA | NA |
| Physical activity (PA) | |||||||||
| Pre-pandemic: ≤ 3 days a week of at least 30m exercise, % (n) | 43.4 (885) | 46.9 (704) | 43.5 (1319) | 41.5 (1744) | 22.7 (594) | 21.2 (1181) | NA | NA | NA |
| During pandemic: ≤ 3 days a week of at least 30m exercise, % (n) | 42.9 (803) | 44.5 (677) | 38.4 (1099) | 39.9 (1588) | 26.3 (608) | 20.3 (994) | NA | NA | NA |
| Less PA/fewer days of +30m exercise, % (n) | 33.6 (622) | 29.7 (445) | 20.5 (624) | 18.2 (787) | 31.7 (804) | 49.3 (2824) | 36.0 (869) | 33.5 (693) | 38.5 (491) |
| More PA/days of at least 30m exercise, % (n) | 37.8 (750) | 35.4 (544) | 31.6 (1074) | 26.8 (1232) | 23.4 (658) | 47.4 (3056) | 23.3 (563) | 44.4 (919) | 42.5 (542) |
| Sleep | |||||||||
|
Pre-pandemic: # hours/day, mean [95% CI] |
7.48 [7.38–7.58] |
7.13 [7.04–7.21] |
6.88 [6.82–6.95] |
6.93 [6.87–6.99] |
7.09 [7.04–7.13] |
6.82 [6.77–6.88] |
NA | NA | NA |
|
During pandemic: # hours/day, mean [95% CI] |
8.12 [7.99–8.25] |
7.41 [7.29-7.54] |
6.98 [6.90–7.06] |
6.99 [6.92–7.07] |
7.10 [7.05–7.15] |
7.01 [6.95–7.07] |
NA | NA | NA |
| Pre-pandemic: <6 or 9+ h a night, % (n) | 12.0 (223) | 6.8 (107) | 10.3 (229) | 10.2 (323) | 9.3 (243) | 14.6 (740) | NA | NA | NA |
| During pandemic: <6 or 9+ h a night, % (n) | 29.9 (569) | 15.9 (231) | 17.1 (430) | 16.3 (540) | 13.5 (347) | 12.2 (673) | NA | NA | NA |
| From 6/9h a night to outside typical range, % (n) | 24.6 (465) | 12.0 (171) | 9.6 (276) | 7.8 (287) | 9.0 (235) | 5.4 (321) | NA | NA | NA |
| From outside typical range to 6/9h a night, % (n) | 6.6 (118) | 2.8 (47) | 2.7 (74) | 1.5 (68) | 5.9 (171) | 7.6 (370) | NA | NA | NA |
| Sleeps less than before, % (n) | 23 (403) | 22 (335) | 19.6 (614) | 16.7 (623) | 21.4 (532) | 30.8 (1903) | 25.6 (618) | 20.9 (432) | 22.0 (280) |
| Sleeps more than before, % (n) | 54.1 (1093) | 36.3 (543) | 27.6 (879) | 21.7 (937) | 22.1 (599) | 44.6 (2482) | 10.3 (249) | 21.2 (439) | 36.3 (462) |
Additional file 1: Table 1 has details of each study’s sample design and weighting applied. Percentages and means are weighted (where weighting was applied), but N are unweighted. Analysis for GS, USOC, and ELSA restricted to participants aged 66 and younger. For more information about the questions asked in each dataset, please see Supplementary file 2