• Edina Maria de Camargo, Thiago Silva Piola, Letícia Pechnicki Dos Santos, Edilson Fernando de Borba, Wagner de Campos, and Sergio Gregorio da Silva.
• PhD. Physical Education Teacher, Postgraduate Program on Physical Education, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba (PR), Brazil.
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2021 Jul 1; 139 (4): 325-330.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic may be having many psychological impacts on people, at both an individual and a community level.ObjectiveTo ascertain the relationship between the weekly frequency of physical activity and levels of stress among Brazilian adults during social distancing due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), and the interaction of sex in this association.Design And SettingCross-sectional study with a descriptive approach conducted at a public university in Curitiba (PR), Brazil.Methods2,000 Brazilian adults (average age 36.4 years; 59.6% women) were recruited according to convenience through digital media. They filled out a questionnaire in electronic format that asked for sociodemographic information, health data, food consumption data, weekly frequency of physical activity and stress levels on the 10-item Kessler psychological distress scale. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses were used to evaluate the data.ResultsAssociations were observed for the following correlations: male sex * no physical activity (odds ratio (OR): 4.35; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14-16.67); female sex * physical activity 4 or 5 times a week (OR: 7.86; 95% CI: 2.28-27.05); female sex * physical activity 3 times a week (OR: 7.32; 95% CI: 2.09-25.58); female sex * physical activity 1 or 2 times a week (OR: 14.57; 95% CI: 4.28-49.57); and female sex * no physical activity (OR: 24.17; 95% CI: 7.21-80.97).ConclusionThe lower the weekly frequency of physical activity during the period of social distancing was, the greater the chances of having stress levels were, especially for women.

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