American adults have been sitting for an increasing amount of time as COVID-19 has transformed daily trips into shuffles between rooms at home and Netflix has taken the place of time spent at the gym or participating in sports. According to a recent study, this may be jeopardizing their mental health as a result. 

“We knew COVID was going to affect our behavior and what we could do in lots of weird, funky ways that we couldn’t predict,” said Jacob Meyer, a research co-author from Iowa State University. “We just didn’t know how.” He was the principal investigator for a pair of studies that investigated how people’s lack of activity during the pandemic affected their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of the world.

Both studies are based on surveys of more than 3,000 people conducted across the country.

First, respondents who had been getting the recommended 2.5 to 5 hours a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity before the pandemic experienced an average 32 percent decrease in activity immediately after COVID-related limitations were implemented, according to the study.

Researchers from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health released data from their study last year in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Those who participated reported feeling melancholy, worried, and lonely.

Between April and June 2020, the same participants took part in new follow-up research in which they answered weekly surveys. Typically, people noticed an improvement in their mental health over that period of time.

According to Meyer, who is an assistant professor of kinesiology and the head of the Wellbeing and Exercise Laboratory, “People adjusted to life in the pandemic,” “However, for those who continued to sit for long periods of time, their depressive symptoms did not improve in the same way as those of the rest of the group.”

The findings of the new study were published recently in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.

A news release from Iowa State University stated that “we know that when people’s physical activity and screen time changes, that it has an impact on their mental health in general,” but “we haven’t really seen large population data like this in response to an abrupt change before,” Meyer added. 

He pointed out that the existence of a link between sitting and mental health does not imply that sitting causes depression or other mental illnesses. According to Meyer, it’s plausible that those who were sadder sat more, or that people who sat more were more depressed as a result of their increased sitting. Alternatively, there could be other factors at play.

“It’s certainly worthy of more investigation,” he remarked. “Being aware of some of the subtle changes we’ve made during the pandemic and how they might be beneficial or detrimental is extremely important as we look forward to the other side of pandemic life,” says the author.

To keep things moving in the interim, it’s necessary to get up and move about frequently during long durations of sitting.

Even if you’re no longer strolling down the hall for in-person meetings, Meyer says that taking a short walk before and after your Zoom session can still provide a welcome respite from sitting.

According to him, if you’re working from home, you should take a walk around the block before and after work to simulate your commute.