South Aussie parents buck global pandemic trend: ‘accidental’ study reveals healthy mums and dads
South Aussie parents have emerged in better shape – physically and mentally – from COVID-19 than most, a new study shows. And, they’ve even been able to keep the booze intake in check. See the results.
SA News
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An “accidental” study of South Australian parents has revealed they’ve kept in better shape during COVID-19 – mentally and physically – than most around the globe, including keeping booze intake in check.
The UniSA Annual Rhythms in Adults’ lifestyle and health (ARIA) study was launched in December 2019 to track the health and wellbeing of parents of primary school-aged children over a 12-month period.
The intended focus of the study was to see how annual changes in things such as the seasons and weather impacted on a family’s lifestyle, including diet and exercise, to better target the shape, timing and rollout of public health campaigns.
What wasn’t factored into the research was a global pandemic, just months after the data “intensively tracking” the daily habits of 64 parents started.
“We wanted to identify how temporal patterns over the course of a year affect lifestyle and health, so looking at things such as weather, festival periods and when people go on holidays,” project lead, Dr Rachel Curtis said.
The chance to analyse data from the lockdown period was an added bonus, the allied health and human performance research associate said.
“What we’ve found is (these parents) were really fairly resilient during this period, they weren’t impacted in the really overly negative way (as) reported elsewhere,” Dr Curtis said.
“We saw some small changes in their physical activity and their diets but we didn’t see any changes in weight or wellbeing … that is quite different to what has been seen in some other countries.”
Some slight changes in behaviour were recorded, including participants sleeping on average for an extra 30 minutes a day and getting up about 40 minutes later than usual.
While the SA parents consumed a bit more alcohol, energy intake from booze was up just 0.9 per cent.
“There was no change to overall energy intake in diets, nor the percentage of energy from fibre, carbohydrate or fat,” Dr Curtis said.
“We didn’t see a lot of change in vigorous exercise, so that is quite positive as well.
“Somewhat surprisingly, there were no changes in quality of life or symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.”
A new cohort of participants – who will each receive a Fitbit activity tracker and smart scales – is now being sought for a second 12-month study, starting this December.
Goodwood mum-of-two Bethan Freeman, 38, has already signed up, saying she is interested in learning more about the lifestyle habits of parents with young children.
She said she isn’t surprised by the findings during lockdown in SA.
“We probably actually got out and walked a bit more with the kids,” the physiotherapist said.
For information, email ariastudy@unisa.edu.au or call, 08 8302 2065.