Knowledge, awareness and impact of Coronavirus disease lockdown on training, fitness and personal parameters: a survey of Nigerian athletes

Oke, Kayode Israel, Ogundiran, Olufemi Opeyemi, Mbada, Chidozie Emmanuel and Ogunkunle, Ekundayo (2021) Knowledge, awareness and impact of Coronavirus disease lockdown on training, fitness and personal parameters: a survey of Nigerian athletes. Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine, 34 (2/2021). pp. 67-75. ISSN 2300-9705

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Abstract

The study was to assess the knowledge and awareness of COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of lockdown restrictions on training, fitness and personal parameters of Nigerian athletes. This cross-sectional study recruited 578 elite athletes through an online survey using WhatsApp platform. An adapted questionnaire was used to obtain information on awareness, knowledge and impact of COVID-19 on athletes' characteristics. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Alpha level was set at p ≤ 0.05. There was high level of awareness (100%) of COVID-19 pandemic among the respondents. The main source of awareness of COVID-19 was social media (68.4%). Some of the respondents (55.9%) had correct knowledge of COVID-19 causative organism. Age was significantly associated with knowledge about cause (X2 = 85.361; p = 0.002) and spread (X2 = 27.715; p = 0.023) of COVID-19 while gender was significantly associated with knowledge about the spread of the virus (X2 = 4.083; p = 0.043). There were significant differences in physical fitness parameters (p < 0.05), eating pattern and body weight measures (p < 0.05), and general well-being (p = 0.001). Lockdown had negative impacts on hours of daily training, sleeping and eating patterns, physical fitness elements and the general well-being of the respondents.