Recommendations for Physical Inactivity and Sedentary Behavior During the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

Since the escalation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, over a billion people across the world have faced restrictions due to varying degrees of confinement, and in the absence of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, massive public health interventions have been implemented to contain the outbreak. The lockdown set up in many countries to combat the COVID-19 epidemic entails unprecedented disruption of lives and work, determining specific risks related to mental and physical health in the general population, especially among those who stopped working during the current outbreak (1). The implementation of confinement policies to contain COVID-19 could be a catalyst for concealed mental and physical health conditions, further enhancing the effects of psychosocial risk factors, including stress, social isolation, and negative emotions that may act as barriers against behavioral changes toward an active lifestyle and negatively impact on global health, well-being and quality of life, ultimately resulting in result in a range of chronic health conditions (2, 3).