RESULTS
Our study included 37 male athletes practicing soccer in a private sporting club in Cairo (Egypt). The mean age of participants was 10.8 (Sd 0.46) years old and ranged between 9 and 11 years old. Only 15 (40.5%) children did not gain weight, based on BMI, during the lockdown from March to July 2020. The mean change in BMI was 0.51 (Sd 0.76) and ranged between -0.6 and 2.3.
Table (1) compares weight, height, BMI, weight percentile, and weight-for-height Z score in March and July 2020. All these variables increased significantly during the mentioned period.
Out of the enrolled athletes 24 (64.9%) didn’t perform home exercises during the lockdown while 10 (27%) carried out mild exercises, 2 (5.4%) were moderately exercising and only one (2.7%) fulfilled the intense schedule.
The mean sleep hours per day during the lockdown were 11.1 (Sd 0.8) hours and ranged between 10 and 13 hours. All participants played video games with an average time of 3.2 (Sd 1.3) daily hours and ranged between 1 and 6 hours.
Only 10 (27%) of our enrolled athletes had tics during the lockdown, 5 (13.5%) reported not feeling healthy during the lockdown, and 9 (24.3%) lost a family member during this particular period.
Participants’ mothers have a relatively high depression score with mean of 16.4 (Sd 2.6) and range between 12 and 21. They have a mean anxiety score of 16.9 (Sd 1.4) and ranged between 14 and 19. After 4 months of lockdown, the athletes‘ mothers had a mean stress score of 18.2 (Sd 1.3) and ranged between 15 and 20.
Table (2) shows correlations between change in BMI and the next possible independent variables; sleeping hours per day, sleep questionnaire, screen time (hours/day) of the athletes as well as the three DASS-21 domains (depression, anxiety and stress) of their mothers. It is noted that increase in BMI was negatively correlated with their mothers‘ DASS-21 depression score (P value 0.010) and positively correlated with their mothers‘ DASS-21 stress score (P value 0.026).
Table (3) compares between children with or without weight gain. There were no significant differences among those two groups regarding screen time (hours/day), sleep questionnaire and video games (hours/day). It also compares children with or without weight gain regarding their mothers‘ DASS-21 depression, DASS-21 anxiety, and DASS-21 stress scores and no significant differences were recorded. The only significant differences were the prolonged sleeping hours among the athletes who gained weight (P value 0.038) and that more young athletes who gained weight from March till July 2020 reported no compliance to the assigned home exercise schedules (P value 0.013).
Lastly, the athletes mean QoL Score filled in March 2020 worsened compared with that of July 2020 [82.8 (Sd 4.6) versus 71.1 (Sd 0.72)] with statistically significant difference (P value 0.000). The mean QoL change was -11 (Sd 4) and ranged between -3 and -18. Additionally, a significant negative correlation was found between the change of BMI and the change of QoL from March to July 2020 (r = -0.393, P value 0.016).