Effects of a Three-Month COVID-19 Lockdown on Body Mass and Nutritional Status of Lebanese Students Who Study Physical Education
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
My recommendations are as follows
In the participants section, mention the inclusion criteria.
Also mention what the number of workouts represents, it is not clear how those values were reached.
I recommend that you calculate the Cronbach's alpha index for the applied questionnaire.
I recommend that under table 1 you mention what BH represents.
I recommend that the discussion section be extended, making other correlations of the results of this study with previous studies.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
My recommendations are as follows
In the participants section, mention the inclusion criteria.
Reply: Thank you for the suggestion. There were no specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. This was added to the Limitation section.
This is added in limitations: “There were no inclusion/exclusion criteria for this study so we could not control whether someone reduced exercise frequency due to some other reasons than lockdown (i.e., was infected by COVID-19).”
Also mention what the number of workouts represents, it is not clear how those values were reached.
Reply: Thank you for the suggestion. We added: (e.g., What is the number of training sessions that you perform during one week?)
I recommend that you calculate the Cronbach's alpha index for the applied questionnaire.
Reply: Thank you for the suggestion. However, respectfully, this was only one question asking for one information rather than more items graded on the Linkert scale, thus Cronbach alpha is not needed.
I recommend that under table 1 you mention what BH represents.
Reply: Thank you for pointing this out. We fixed it in the table and replaced “BH” with the “Body height”.
I recommend that the discussion section be extended, making other correlations of the results of this study with previous studies.
Reply: We expanded the discussion with additional correlations with other studies.
This paragraph is added:
Considering the training frequency, our results are in contrast to Romero-Blanco et al. [45] who reported an increase in physical activity of health sciences students during the COVID-19 confinement. However, they had a larger subsample of female students compared to male students, which was in contrast to our sample. This could partially explain the opposite trends in physical activity behavior given that men but not women are more motivated with elements related to the environment, such as competition or social recognition, while weight control was found to be the main motivation for women [46]. Our results are in line with the findings of Ammar et al. [17] who reported a significant decrement in all types of physical activity (i.e., vigorous, moderate and walking intensity) during the COVID-19 home confinement. Of note is that Romero-Blanco et al. [45] next to increment in physical activity reported an increment in sitting behavior as well. Remaining within their homes with discontinued daily life activities may unintentionally increase sedentary behavior, decrease physical activity, and inflict negative health consequences [47,48]. Therefore, it is of importance to find the ways and motivation to stay active while taking precautions [49].
Reviewer 2 Report
Title
Overall, the title of the paper reads well. However, I am not sure if it best to describe the sample as “Lebanese physical education students”, because this applies you have studied Lebanese physical education students from all age groups and from all schools. I am not sure why it is the best viewpoint to characterise this sample? Maybe the age might be a better viewpoint to characterize the sample?
Abstract
Overall, the abstract is well written. However, Authors could add some more specific results to the abstract as well as some points for the discussion.
Introduction
Overall, the introduction includes most of the information that is relevant to the main topic. However, the Authors could specify more precisely the problem of physical activity. Also, the Authors tell the reader about motivation, but they do not say is it intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. It is important to distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic forms of motivation, because recent research has highlighted it is specifically intrinsic motivation that is related to daily physical activity (Kalajas-Tilga et al., 2020).
Kalajas-Tilga, H., Koka, A., Hein, V., Tilga, H., & Raudsepp, L. (2020). Motivational processes in physical education and objectively measured physical activity among adolescents. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 9(5), 462–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2019.06.001
In addition, recent research has pointed out that the restrictions of COVID-19 might contribute to negative association between intention and physical activity (Kalajas-Tilga et al., 2021). This adds further knowledge that the children still have the intention to be physically active (they have not lost it), but due to the restrictions of COVID-19 they simply are not allowed to be physically active in a way that they are used to.
Kalajas-Tilga, H., Hein, V., Koka, A., Tilga, H., Raudsepp, L., & Hagger, M. S. (2021). Trans-Contextual Model Predicting Change in Out-of-School Physical Activity: A One-Year Longitudinal Study. European Physical Education Review, https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X211053807
Line 87 – check for a typo
I also suggest Authors to end the introduction section with “The present study” section in which you introduce the aim of the study and study hypotheses.
Methods
In the methods it is the first time I realize that the sample is university students. The title and abstract needs to be clearer about the sample, it is currently confusing.
Is the mean age 22.00? What is the SD of this age?
Results
The results are clear for the reader.
Discussion
Please add more possible future directions for the future research.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Title
Overall, the title of the paper reads well. However, I am not sure if it best to describe the sample as “Lebanese physical education students”, because this applies you have studied Lebanese physical education students from all age groups and from all schools. I am not sure why it is the best viewpoint to characterise this sample? Maybe the age might be a better viewpoint to characterize the sample?
Reply: Thank you for the suggestion. We did change the title slightly, although the original title is simpler to read while saying the same.
Regarding age, we added in Results section Table 1:
Distribution of students in age groups (20 years and younger, 21-25 years and 26 years and older.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frequency (n) |
Percent (%) |
|
Age |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 year and younger |
|
|
|
|
66 |
38 |
|
21-25 years |
|
|
|
|
88 |
50 |
|
26 years and older |
|
|
|
|
21 |
21 |
Abstract
Overall, the abstract is well written. However, Authors could add some more specific results to the abstract as well as some points for the discussion.
Reply: Thank you for the suggestion. We added some specific details in the abstract.
Introduction
Overall, the introduction includes most of the information that is relevant to the main topic. However, the Authors could specify more precisely the problem of physical activity.
Reply: Thank you for the suggestion. We expanded the introduction with the importance of physical activity.
This is added an introduction:
Ammar et al. [17] investigated the effects of COVID-19 home confinement on eating behavior and physical activity on a large international sample of respondents to ECLB-COVID19 questionnaire. Authors found the COVID-19 home confinement had a negative effect on all physical activity intensity levels, while daily sitting time increased from 5 to 8 h per day…. There is a large body of evidence that sufficient physical activity helps in the maintenance of skeletal muscle mass and body fatness [20–22], as well as health and well-being [23–25].
Also, the Authors tell the reader about motivation, but they do not say is it intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. It is important to distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic forms of motivation, because recent research has highlighted it is specifically intrinsic motivation that is related to daily physical activity (Kalajas-Tilga et al., 2020).
Kalajas-Tilga, H., Koka, A., Hein, V., Tilga, H., & Raudsepp, L. (2020). Motivational processes in physical education and objectively measured physical activity among adolescents. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 9(5), 462–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2019.06.001
In addition, recent research has pointed out that the restrictions of COVID-19 might contribute to negative association between intention and physical activity (Kalajas-Tilga et al., 2021). This adds further knowledge that the children still have the intention to be physically active (they have not lost it), but due to the restrictions of COVID-19 they simply are not allowed to be physically active in a way that they are used to.
Kalajas-Tilga, H., Hein, V., Koka, A., Tilga, H., Raudsepp, L., & Hagger, M. S. (2021). Trans-Contextual Model Predicting Change in Out-of-School Physical Activity: A One-Year Longitudinal Study. European Physical Education Review, https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X211053807
Reply: Thank you for pointing this out. We added the statement on intrinsic motivation.
This is added: For instance, Kalajas-Tilga et al. [23] reported that intrinsic motivation was positively associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. In addition, recent research has pointed out that the restrictions of COVID-19 might contribute to a negative association between intention and physical activity [24].
Line 87 – check for a typo
Reply: the typo is fixed, thank you.
I also suggest Authors to end the introduction section with “The present study” section in which you introduce the aim of the study and study hypotheses.
Reply: Thank you for the suggestion. We made the aim and hypotheses the last paragraph of the introduction and we transfer the last sentence of the introduction to methods: “This was a rare longitudinal study that assessed training frequency and body mass of students before and at the end of the lockdown, thus providing direct insights into general and individual effects of lockdown.”
Methods
In the methods it is the first time I realize that the sample is university students. The title and abstract needs to be clearer about the sample, it is currently confusing.
Reply: We made wording changes so it is clear that the study is about students who study physical education.
Is the mean age 22.00? What is the SD of this age?
Reply: It is the mean age, and we added SD.
Results
The results are clear for the reader.
Reply: Thank you very much!
Discussion
Please add more possible future directions for the future research.
Reply: We expanded the conclusion with possible future directions.
This is added in conclusion:
Future research should investigate more closely the effects of physical education on the public health system. Furthermore, the effects of implementing physical education at universities on students motivation and ability to engage in exercise programs or physically active life need to be investigated.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
no comments
Reviewer 2 Report
Authors have done well job on revising the manuscript.
