Evaluation of sleep quality and physical activity levels of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Our study aimed to investigate university students' sleep quality and physical activity levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted the study on 128 volunteer students studying at Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University, Vocational School of Health. We collected the data online through the socio-demographic form, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the International Physical Activity Questionnaires (IPAQ). The average PSQI score of the students was 8.87±3.47, with 81.3% of the students having poor and 18.8% having good sleep quality. The total physical activity score was 1259.73±2183.33 (MET-Min/week). The percentage of students who had no vigorous physical activity was 80.5%, while 59.4% did not do moderate physical activity, and 5.5% did not have adequate walking activity. About 53.1% of the students were not physically active, 32% had low physical activity, and only 14.8% had adequate physical activity. COVID-19 pandemic had several adverse effects on students' sleep quality and physical activity levels. During the pandemic, we think that students had difficulty forming regular biological rhythms, especially sleep and physical activity, due to various reasons such as concerns about education, quarantine and social isolation. Necessary information should be acquired, and guidance should be given about quality sleep and adequate physical activity to reduce the adverse effects of the disease by keeping the immune system strong. © 2022 Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi. All rights reserved.