Authors:Simon Christopher Fernandez, John Percival Fernandez Pages: 4 - 12 Abstract: Background. COVID-19 is a highly dangerous Coronavirus disease which originated in China. The wide spread of this disease to other countries at a high pace led the World Health Organization to announce COVID-19 as a global health crisis. As the fatality rate rapidly increased globally, it affected people’s behaviours to a large extent in the form of fear, panic emotion and unwanted anxiety. The aim of this research was to evaluate public behaviours toward COVID-19 in South Africa. Methods. The research employed a quantitative methodology, and descriptive design was used to collect the data. Using virtual snowball sampling technique, a total of 160 individuals who were above 17 years of age and literate in English were selected from East London district in the Eastern Cape State of South Africa. A two point Likert-scale questionnaire was developed in Google Form, and the responses collected from the online survey were entered in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance were used to analyse the data. Results. The results showed that the participants kept social distancing of at least one meter, carried hand sanitizer whenever they went out and washed their hands frequently to avoid the contamination of the Coronavirus. The results also revealed that males and females did not have any difference in behaviour toward COVID-19. However, there was a statistically significant difference between the age categories of individuals in their behaviours toward COVID-19. Conclusion. Overall, the public in East London city of South Africa showed positive behaviours toward COVID-19. Keywords: behaviours, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus, World Health Organization, South Africa. PubDate: 2022-04-07 DOI: 10.33607/bjshs.v1i124.1159 Issue No:Vol. 1, No. 124 (2022)
Authors:Burak Gürer, Mürsel Biçer Pages: 13 - 22 Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented chaos worldwide in the current century. Thousands of people died, and millions of people caught the COVID-19 virus. In this tough time, people locked themselves down in their homes for a long time, either voluntarily or mandatorily as part of governmental precautions against the rapid spreading of the virus. This difficult time forced people to change their daily life routines to a sedentary life which affected them mentally and psychologically. Following the lifting of the restrictions, people have started to make an intense effort to do physical activity and spend more time in nature to relax. Consequently, physical activity in a safe environment has become a priority for most people. With this challenging period, open spaces have become more preferred areas for physical activity rather than closed areas. Outdoor and adventure sports have started to consider the safest way of physical activity. Intense physical activity can be done in outdoor and adventure sports, depending on the type of activities. With the necessary precautions taken during the activities, doing outdoor and adventure sports has become a critical step in reducing the effects of mental and psychological factors such as stress, pessimism, bad mood, and unhappiness. Moreover, these sports physically contribute positively to lung capacity. This study provides useful information about outdoor and adventure sports along with highlighting important points and possible risks when doing physical activity in open spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords: adventure sports, COVID-19, physical activity, outdoor sports. PubDate: 2022-04-07 DOI: 10.33607/bjshs.v1i124.1160 Issue No:Vol. 1, No. 124 (2022)
Authors:Daiva Vizbaraitė , Julija Kleivaitė Pages: 23 - 32 Abstract: Background. Nationwide lockdowns, encompassing mass quarantine under stay-at-home ordinances, have already proven effective in controlling the COVID-19 outbreak. A prolonged homestay may also be associated with potential side effects, which may jeopardize people’s health. Some undesirable consequences of prolonged homestay can be physical inactivity, behavioral addiction disorders and social isolation (Henry, Bovo, & Sanchis-Gomar, 2020). The aim of the study is to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and lifestyle in the population of Kaunas city. Methods of research. anonymous online survey, which included questions on demographics, eating habits, alcohol and tobacco consumption, physical activity (Global Physical Activity Questionnaire), sleep quality (Pittsburgh sleep quality index) and mental health (Patient Health Questionnaire – 9). Results. the study involved 388 respondents from Kaunas city. Women accounted for 80,7 %, and men for 19,3 % of respondents. Average of sedentary behavior during the pandemic – 430, 93 ± 233,47 min., before the pandemic – 324, 42 ± 216,21 min. (p <0,05). Average of moderate-intensity physical activity (PA) before the pandemic 122,40 ± 148,98 min., and during the pandemic – 85,33 ± 98,08 min. (p<0,05). Average of vigorous-intensity PA during the pandemic – 21,20 ± 34,13 min, and before – 47,13 ± 104,08 (p<0,05). The consumption of fast food on daily basis before the pandemic – 0,8 %, during the pandemic – 1,5 % (p<0,05). Before the pandemic 15,7 % of respondents overate, during the pandemic – 30,2 % of respondents (p<0,05). Before the pandemic 1,8% of respondents consumed alcohol every day, during the pandemic – 3,4 % of respondents (p<0,05). Symptoms of depression: 7,26 ± 1,46 points before the pandemic and 10,40 ± 2,20 points during the pandemic (p<0,05). Quality of sleep: 5,73 ± 2,20 points before the pandemic and 6,44 ± 2,99 during the pandemic (p<0,05). Conclusion. Sedentary behavior increased, while moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity PA decreased (p<0,05) during the pandemic. The consumption of fruit and fast food increased during the pandemic (p<0,05) as well as the daily consumption of alcohol (p<0,05). The symptoms of depression were evaluated as mild (5–9 points) before the pandemic, and as moderate (10-14 points) during the pandemic (p<0,05). The quality of sleep was evaluated as worse during the pandemic than before the pandemic (p<0,05). Keywords: COVID-19, lifestyle, mental health, population of Kaunas city. PubDate: 2022-04-07 DOI: 10.33607/bjshs.v1i124.1161 Issue No:Vol. 1, No. 124 (2022)
Authors:Aistė Barbora Ušpurienė, Deimantė Sadzevičiūtė Pages: 33 - 39 Abstract: The aim of the research. To reveal the expression of communicative and organizational abilities in representatives of dance sport and other dance styles (ballet, street, modern, national, lindy hop) (adolescents). Methods. The research involved 50 adolescents (28 girls and 22 boys) that attended dance sport, and 50 participants (30 girls and 20 boys) that attended dance of other styles (ballet, street, modern, national, lindy hop). The age of the research participants was 12–14 years. The questionnaire was compiled according to the methodology of Fedorishin and Sinyavskiy (2017), aiming to assess communicative and organizational abilities. The abilities of the dancers assessed according to this methodology were classified as “very low”, “low”, “average”, “upper average” and “high” levels. Results. After assessing the communicative abilities in the research participants of dance sport in the aspect of gender, we determined that the communicative abilities in most girls (36.42 per cent) and boys (37.50 per cent) were high. After assessing their organizational abilities, it was determined the organizational abilities in most researched (37.48 per cent of the boys and 45.49 per cent of the girls) matched to the low level. Among the research participants of other dance styles, the level of communicative abilities was high in 30.00 per cent of the boys and 24.98 per cent of the girls. After assessing the organizational abilities of this group of dancers, it was determined the low level of organizational abilities was most expressed, matching 30.24 per cent of the boys and 64.86 per cent of the girls. Conclusions. After assessing the adolescents that attended dance sport or dance of other styles, it was determined the level of communicative and organizational abilities among the research participants of those groups did not differ statistically significantly. Key words: dance sport, other dance styles, communicative abilities, organizational abilities. PubDate: 2022-04-07 DOI: 10.33607/bjshs.v1i124.1162 Issue No:Vol. 1, No. 124 (2022)
Authors:Coskun Rodoplu , Ramiz Arabaci , Recep Gorgulu Pages: 40 - 48 Abstract: Background. A game of chess represents a legitimate physical and psychological stress due to its strategic and cognitively demanding nature over a long period of time. This very challenging situation has not been thoroughly explored and, to the best of our knowledge, there is no research report that has concentrated on both heart rate variability and energy expenditure for deeper understanding of chess players’ performance. The main aim of the present study was to examine the HRV and EE of chess players before, during and after a competition, as well as the moderate level of running exercise. Methods. The sample comprised 24 (19 men, 5 women; Mage=24.8) volunteer chess players who have been playing chess regularly for at least 5 years. The average National Chess Rating (NCR) of participants was determined as 1526. In addition, a total of ten participants have International Chess Rating (ELO) rating (mean = 1588). We obtained participants’ body mass indexes before the experiment took place. Participants’ HR and HRV were taken through the chess competition, and running exercises took place in 3 different time periods; before (15 min), during (30 min) and after (15 min). Results. Our results indicated that there was a significant difference on HRV between chess competition and running exercises HRV (RMSSD, SDNN, NN50 and RR) (p=.001). Besides, there was a significant difference on participants’ EE between a chess competition and a moderate level of running (p=.001). Conclusions. HRV values determined in chess competition and running exercise are different from each other. Contradictory to our speculative hypothesis, the current results provide that a moderate level of running exercises requires more energy expenditure than a chess game. Keywords: running exercise, mental activity, autonomic nervous system, parasympathetic activity. PubDate: 2022-04-07 Issue No:Vol. 1, No. 124 (2022)
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