Table 2.

Characteristics and Main Findings of Included Studies that Assessed Change in Physical Activity (PA) during versus before COVID-19 Pandemic (N = 33).

Country	Data Collection Perioda	Type of Study	Sampleb,c	PA Data	Direction of PA Changed	Main Findings	Study
Australia	May 2020	Cross-sectional	213 children ages 5–17 years with ADHD	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Parents reported children did less regular exercise compared to 3 months prior. 50.8 % did < 5 days of exercise per week before the pandemic whereas 72.6 % did < 5 days of exercise per week during the pandemic. 50.3 % reported no change/positive change in PA vs 49.7 % reported negative change in PA.	Sciberras et al. (2020)
Australia	May 15-June 15, 2020	Mixed-methods; cross-sectional	157 children ages 5–9 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↕	Overall, weekly minutes of total PA did not change from before to during the pandemic. Frequency and duration of unstructured PA increased, whereas organized PA decreased. Outdoor play in the yard or street around the house, outdoor play in the park or playground or outdoor recreation area, and active indoor play at home all increased.Parents reported their children were more physically active during the pandemic due to: more children playing with each other in local streets, increased use of neighborhood spaces (e.g., parks) for PA, increased unstructured physical activities as a result of organized sport stopping.	(Nathan et al., 2021)
Brazil	March 25-April 24, 2020	Cross-sectional	423 children ages 6–12 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Children ages 6–9 years spent more time playing without PA than children ages 10–12 years; however, there were not differences in playing time with PA or total time in PA between the two groups.	de Sá et al. (2020)
Brazil	June 12-July 12, 2020	Cross-sectional	426 children and adolescents	Self-report by youth	↓	PA decreased.	(de Matos et al., 2020)
Canada	1 month after WHO declared pandemic	Case-Control	1,472 children ages 5–7 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↕	The adherence to PA group included children whose parents reported that their children either maintained or increased (responded about the same, a little more, or a lot more) time spent walking/biking in their neighborhood.The non-adherence group included children whose parents reported a large decrease (responded ‘a lot less’) in their children’s outdoor PA/sport since COVID-19.	(Guerrero et al., 2020)
Canada	1 month after WHO declared pandemic	Cross-sectional	1,472 children ages 5–17 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	18.21 % of sample was currently meeting Canadian PA guidelines. There was a decline in all physical activities except household chores. The most dramatic decline was with outdoor PA and sport. Being a younger parent was associated with less decline in child PA, outdoor, and indoor play, and family PA.Parental encouragement was associated with higher child outdoor PA, time spent walking and biking, outdoor play, indoor PA, and family PA	(Moore et al., 2020)
Canada	January-April 2019 and 2020	Cross-sectional	109 children with congenital heart disease	Fibit Charge 2	↓	Children with congenital heart disease had a decline of 21 %-24 % of their overall daily step counts. Steps counts in the last week of March and first week were lower in 2020 than in matched weeks in 2019.	(Hemphill et al., 2020)
Canada	April 2020	Cross-sectional	1,472 children ages 5–17 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↕	26.5 % of those who increased outdoor activities met the guidelines vs 11.6 % of those who decreased outdoor activities met MVPA guidelines. 53 % reported less walking or biking, 64 % less outdoor PA or sport, 51 % less outdoor play, 53 % increase indoor play. More youth aged 12–17 (than children aged 5–11) experienced a decrease in PA-related movements during the pandemic. Those living in high-density neighborhoods were more likely to be in decrease outdoor activity.	(Mitra et al., 2020)
Canada	June 2–9, 2020	Cohort	20 student athletes ages 15–17 years	Self-report by youth	↕	PA declined at the onset of restrictions and at the onset of school resuming online. Poor weather (snow and ice) limited students to indoor exercises. At the time of interview, some participants returned to activity levels prior to the pandemic.	(Shepherd et al., 2021)
Canada	June-July 2020	Qualitative cross-sectional	29 children ages 5–11 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Families saw a dramatic decline in children's PA. Major pandemic-related changes: loss of structured activities at school and afterschool, limited access to destinations (e.g., parks), barriers (e.g., weather, motivation). Parents said online and fitness-based activities were uninteresting for children and didn't provide same intensity of activity children are used to.	(Riazi et al., 2021)
Canada	September-December 2020	Qualitative cross-sectional	22 children ages 8–12 years	Self-report by youth and parent/caregiver	↑	There as an increase in unstructured play due to: closed structures and places to be active, less supervision, more time outside, reduced opportunities for structured activity. There was lost in play time to accommodate safety rules and sanitation protocols.	(Pelletier et al., 2021)
China	January 3–21, 2020 and March 13–23, 2020	Cohort	2,426 children and adolescents ages 6–17 years	Self-report by youth	↓	Average decrease in PA: 435 min/week Prevalence of physically inactive youth increased from 21.3 % to 65.6 %.	(Xiang et al., 2020)
China	March 5–15, 2020	Cross-sectional	10,416 children and adolescents	Self-report by youth or parent/caregiver	↓	Prevalence of youth who reported a decrease in time spent in PA was highest among boys. Prevalence of youth who reported a decrease in time spent in PA was highest among high school students.	(Guo et al., 2021)
China	July 2020	Cross-sectional	2,863 adolescents ages 9–17 years	Self-report by youth	↕	More participants reported decrease time to exercise (33.3 %) than those who reported increase time to exercise (25 %). No male/female differences in time spent to exercise. More primary school students reported increased time to exercise than secondary school students. More students from the high affluence group reported increase time to exercise than the low affluence group.	(Zhu et al., 2021)
Cyprus	June 1-July 17, 2020	Cross-sectional	1,509 children	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Following the re-opening of schools, children’s PA decreased both in school and in their free time compared to before the pandemic. Children’s PA was reduced during the pandemic.	(Konstantinou et al., 2021)
Cyprus & Greece	February 3-April 26, 2019 and 2020	Cohort	108 children with asthma	EMBRACE smartwatch	↓	There was a steep decrease in total steps per day.	(Kouis et al., 2021)
Czechia	June 2020	Qualitative cross-sectional	3,440 adolescents	Self-report by youth	↕	Boys who reported daily MVPA (before pandemic) were 2.8 times more likely to perceive they did more MVPA during the Spring of 2020 lockdown, and 1.7 times more than girls in the same group.	(Ng et al., 2021)
France	April 1-May 6, 2020	Cross-sectional	6,491 children and adolescents ages 6–17 years	Self-report by youth or parent/caregiver	↓	Children who reported doing < 2 h or > 5 h 30 min of PA per week before lockdown increased this practice time during the confinement period. Conversely, the proportion of children who practiced between 2 h and 5 h 30 min of PA per week reduced their practice during confinement. 48.9 % of the children who practiced < 5 h 30 min of PA per week before confinement increased their duration of practice during the confinement period.In general, 42.0 % of children decreased their level of PA, while it remained stable in 21.3 % and increased in 36.7 %. On average, 58.7 % of adolescents decreased their level of PA, 21.8 % did not change, and only 19.6 % increased.	(Genin et al., 2021)
France	April 1-May 6, 2020	Cross-sectional	6,491 children and adolescents ages 6–17 years	Self-report by youth or parent/caregiver	↕	42 % children & 58.7 % adolescents reported decreased PA during the pandemic. 21.3 % children & 21.8 % adolescents maintained similar PA. 36.7 % children & 19.6 % adolescents increased PA. Being physically active before the pandemic was associated with a change in PA level during the pandemic such that initially active children and adolescents decreased their PA more than those initially inactive.Geographic location (urban, suburban, rural) was associated with PA. 64.2 % reported a decrease in PA when they did not have access to an outdoor area, compared to a decrease in PA among only 37.8 % who had individual outdoor area access.	(Chambonniere et al., 2021)
Germany	June 11–19, 2020	Cross-sectional	193 children ages 8–13 years	Self-report by youth	↓	A reduction in PA was only seen among primary school students (42.2.%).	(Hommes et al., 2021)
Israel	December 4–10, 2020	Cross-sectional	382 children	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Children spent less time in PA. There was a significant interaction of time-point (before and during pandemic) with diagnosed COVID-19 in the family; when a member of the family was diagnosed with COVID-19, children tended to spend less time in PA.	Ghanamah and Eghbaria-Ghanamah (2021)
Japan	May 2020 and October 2020	Non-randomized experimental	78 children in school closure group & 113 controls	Self-report by youth	↓	The school closure group had more children who spent less time devoted to PA (56 %) compared to children in the non-school closure group.	Saito et al. (2021)
Portugal	March 23-April 1, 2020	Cross-sectional	2,159 children ages 6–12 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	There was a decrease in children’s PA. Girls played more without PA than boys during the pandemic. Children ages 6–9 years spent 21.95 % of their day in overall PA whereas children ages 10–12 years spent 16.32 % of their day in overall PA during the pandemic.	(Pombo et al., 2021)
Serbia	May 29-June 6, 2020	Cross-sectional	450 children ages 7–15 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	There was a small decrease in the number of PA participants. 63.4 % of children did exercise at home during the pandemic. 68 % of children exercised at home for < 30 min during the pandemic. During the pandemic, 69 % of parents considered their child’s PA level to be only enough to maintain physical form partially.	(Vuković et al., 2021)
Spain	September-December 2019 and March-April 2020	Cohort	291 children	Wrist-worn Actigraph accelerometer prior to pandemic Self-report by youth	↓	PA decreased (-91 +/- 55 min/day). 95.2 % of children worsened their PA during the pandemic. There were no sex, school, or weight status differences in changes in PA. Children with outside space at home or other big spaces (garage, attic, gym) , had less of a decrease in PA compared to peers without them.	(Medrano et al., 2020)
Tunisia	April 25-May 20, 2020	Cross-sectional	100 children ages 5–12 years	Self-report by youth and parent/caregiver	↓	PA decreased. Total PA decreased by 7 % for boys and 17 % for girls from before to during the pandemic.	(Abid et al., 2021)
Turkey	Not stated	Qualitative cross-sectional	10 children with autism spectrum disorders	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Three major themes: possible benefits of PA during the pandemic, PA barriers during the pandemic, and solution suggestions for PA during the pandemic.	Esentürk (2021)
United Kingdom	July 14-August 14, 2020	Cross-sectional	927 children ages 5–11 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Children spent less time in daily PA. The proportion of children with low PA (<30 min) increased from 3.7 % to 16.2 %. The proportion of children engaging in PA between 1.5 and 2 h and > 3 h reduced from 20.3 % to 13.5 % and from 10.1 % to 5.8 %, respectively.	Morgul et al. (2020)
U.S.	April 23-May 4, 2020	Cross-sectional	2,440 children	Self-report by physical education teachers, school administrators	↓	Time spent in PA and PE decreased. 78.8 % believed their students were obtaining either significantly less or somewhat less PA compared to their typical school day. For schools that closed their campuses, 86.1 % were reportedly able to deliver P.E. remotely. 79 % reported that students were accumulating either “significantly less” or “somewhat less” activity during the closure.	(Pavlovic et al., 2021)
U.S.	April 25-May 16, 2020	Cross-sectional	211 children ages 5–13 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Parents perceived children’s PA had decreased. Average yesterday MET-min: 892 ± 902 Child age was significantly negatively associated with day-total MET-min of PA. Boys were more likely to participate in sports practice/training than girls during the pandemic. Children were more likely to perform PA at home or in the garage during the pandemic; children were less likely to perform PA on parks or trails during the pandemic.	[Anonymous, 2020]
U.S.	April-June 2020	Mixed-methods; cross-sectional	51 children ages 5–17 years	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↕	About half of parents said that children either maintained the same amount of activity, or in a few cases, increased their activity compared with before the pandemic. Many families went outside more frequently and for longer periods because of being at home and having a less structured school day. Parents attributed changes in activity to closure of school (recess, P.E. classes) and organized sports or dance.	(Neshteruk et al., 2021)
U.S.	March 2019-September 2020	Cohort	1,084 adolescents	Self-report by youth	↓	PA decreased; adolescents were less likely to report being physically active after the stay-at-home order.	(Chaffee et al., 2021)
U.S.	October 8-November 13, 2020	Cross-sectional	1,290 children ages 5–12	Self-report by parent/caregiver	↓	Parents of children receiving virtual instruction were more likely than were parents of children receiving in-person instruction to report that their child experienced decreased PA (62.9 % vs 30.3 %).Parents of children receiving combined instruction were also more likely than those of children with in-person instruction to report that their children experienced decreased PA (52.1 % vs 30.3 %).Parents of children receiving virtual instruction were more likely than parents of children receiving combined instruction that their children experienced decreased PA (62.9 % vs 52.1 %).	(Verlenden et al., 2021)

^aDates are listed as shown in the full-text article; some articles did not specify dates.

^bThere was not a defined age range for “children” or “adolescents”; whichever term(s) the authors used is listed.

^cAge ranges are not listed if the information was not available in the full-text article.

^d.$\uparrow indicatesanincreaseinPA,\downarrow indicatesadecreaseinPA,\updownarrow indicatessomeincreaseandsomedecreaseinPA$

MVPA = Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Note. Articles are sorted alphabetically by country and chronologically by date of data collection.