• Tomas Vetrovsky, Tereza Frybova, Iulian Gant, Miroslav Semerad, Richard Cimler, Vaclav Bunc, Michal Siranec, Marie Miklikova, Jiri Vesely, Martin Griva, Jan Precek, Radek Pelouch, Jiri Parenica, and Jan Belohlavek.
• Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, José Martího 269/31, Prague, 162 52, Czech Republic.
• ESC Heart Fail. 2020 Oct 1; 7 (5): 2093-2097.

AimsA reduction of habitual physical activity due to prolonged COVID-19 quarantine can have serious consequences for patients with cardiovascular diseases, such as heart failure. This study aimed to explore the effect of COVID-19 nationwide quarantine on accelerometer-assessed physical activity of heart failure patients.Methods And ResultsWe analysed the daily number of steps in 26 heart failure patients during a 6-week period that included 3 weeks immediately preceding the onset of the quarantine and the first 3 weeks of the quarantine. The daily number of steps was assessed using a wrist-worn accelerometer worn by the patients as part of an ongoing randomized controlled trial. Multilevel modelling was used to explore the effect of the quarantine on the daily step count adjusted for weather conditions. As compared with the 3 weeks before the onset of the quarantine, the step count was significantly lower during each of the first 3 weeks of the quarantine (P < 0.05). When the daily step count was averaged across the 3 weeks before and during the quarantine, the decrease amounted to 1134 (SE 189) steps per day (P < 0.001), which translated to a 16.2% decrease.ConclusionsThe introduction of the nationwide quarantine due to COVID-19 had a detrimental effect on the level of habitual physical activity in heart failure patients, leading to an abrupt decrease of daily step count that lasted for at least the 3-week study period. Staying active and maintaining sufficient levels of physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic are essential despite the unfavourable circumstances of quarantine.© 2020 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.

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