Abstract
A self-report questionnaire was employed in this pilot study to visualize PA behaviors among adolescent males and females after the reopening of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic living in an urban city. A total of 124 adolescents, 13 to18 years old, from various secondary and high schools, participated in this cross-sectional study. The participants completed the questionnaire remotely using a digital platform self-administered questionnaire, the PAQ-A, to assess their PA over the last week. The high score of PAQ indicates higher levels of PA, and we calculated the mean score of all items for the analysis. We used an independent t-test to compare gender by using SPSS Statistics Software version 25.0 and set the p-value cutoff of <= 0.05 for the level of significance. Females were more physically active than males, and there were significant differences in the cumulative (P-value: 0.018) and mean score (P-value: 0.018) between females and males. Physical activities such as walking, Jogging, Tag, and in-line skating activities were significantly higher in females with mean 3.71 +/- 1.39, 2.90 +/- 1.44, 2.68 +/- 1.36 and 1.51 +/- 1.08, respectively as compared to males with mean 2.58 +/- 1.17, 2.03 +/- 1.07, 1.60 +/- 0.74 and 1.13 +/- 0.40 (P<0.05). In addition, the overall physical activity of the female study participants in their spare time was significantly higher than males, with mean scores of 1.79 +/- 0.71 and 1.39 +/- 0.28, respectively (P<0.01). The study findings showed that the overall physical activity of the entire sample significantly declined as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the females were found to be more active than males.