Four KEY findings from my dissertation research (2022)

During the analysis and write-up of my dissertation, I’ve come across several take home messages. Here are four of them.

Let’s dive right in.

If you’re new here, my dissertation research concerns the influence of personality type on the relationship between change in physical activity and changes in mental wellbeing, social participation, and sleep quality from during a COVID-19 lockdown to after a COVID-19 lockdown. There were several statistical analyses conducted, so I’ll save you from the boredom of these in this summary post (I’ll definitely do an in depth write-up at a later date, let me know if you’re interested!).

Lifestyle Behaviours

Mental wellbeing, social participation, and sleep quality were measured retrospectively for January to March 2021 (during a strict lockdown in the UK) and for the present day (at the time of data collection, this was November to December 2021, after a strict lockdown in the UK). As indicated in the graph, mental wellbeing and social participation were both negatively affected during lockdown, and both of these negative changes were statistically significant. Sleep quality was poor during both time periods, and the mean sleep quality score was actually lower after lockdown than during lockdown.

Physical Activity

This was measured in total MET minutes per week for both time periods. MET minutes are not the same as normal minutes, so don’t worry if you’re looking at the graph wondering why on earth the mean physical activity level is almost 3000 minutes per week because it’s not! MET minutes are the amount of energy our body expends during a minute while at rest. You can, however, burn more than one MET minute in a minute, as your number of MET minutes depends on the MET intensity as well. For the purposes of this research, walking, moderate, and vigorous MET minutes were summed to reach a total MET minutes per week score for both time periods. The mean total physical activity score was found to be higher during lockdown than after lockdown, which is perhaps surprising due to the ceasing of organised physical activity and widespread messaging encouraging home confinement.

Four Key Findings

1. Mental wellbeing was significantly negatively affected during lockdown

2. Social participation was significantly negatively affected during lockdown

3. Sleep quality was poor during lockdown and still is poor after lockdown. Interventions may be required

4. Physical activity has declined since lockdown

The above key findings are useful for future lockdowns, as we know that mental wellbeing and social participation are statistically significantly negatively affected during lockdown and social isolation. Interventions can be implemented to counteract these negative changes. It is also useful to know that sleep quality was poor during lockdown and is still suffering now. While it is difficult to pinpoint direct causation for this, we can draw from previous suggestion that increased physical activity improves sleep quality. Public health authorities should also be aware that people who usually lead an active lifestyle, might be particularly susceptible to such disruptions (Martinez-de-Quel et al., 2021).