| dc.description.abstract | The COVID-19 pandemic had become a major global threat in whole over the world.
To control the rapid infection, the country was lockdown. The aim of this study was
to assess the level of sedentary behavior and social loneliness in before, during and
after the COVID-19 lockdown among physiotherapy undergraduate students in Sri Lanka.
The descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with 300 physiotherapy students
of Kotelawala Defence University, University of Peradeniya and University of Colombo
between January 2020 and February 2023.The data was collected using validated structured
self- administrated questionnaires. The responses were captured electronically and
the data was analyzed using SPSS software, version 20. The lowest number of population
showed high sedentary behavior (127-168 hrs/week) in all three phases while the highest
showed in during lockdown (7.3%). Most students showed high level of social loneliness
during lockdown (13.3%) than the other two phases. A significant difference was found
between gender and sedentary behavior only before lockdown (p=0.04) while no difference
for the social loneliness. Further, a significant negative correlation was found between
physical activity and sedentary behavior in before lockdown (p=0.04,r=0.12). Most of
the Sri Lankan physiotherapy undergraduates spent less sedentary hours regardless of
COVID 19 pandemic. However, compared to other two phases there was an increase of
sedentary hours in during lockdown while they showed more social loneliness in during
lockdown period rather than the other two phases. | en_US |
