effects of the covid-19 pandemic on physical activity, mood status, and eating patterns of iranian elite athletes and non-athletes

Background: suspension of sports activities during the covid-19 pandemic led to unhealthy lifestyles such as harmful eating habits, low physical activity levels, and mood changes. objectives: we examined the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the mood states, physical activity levels, and eating habits of athletes and non-athletes during the pandemic in iran. methods: a total of 257 elite athletes (n = 82) and non-athletes (n = 175) (29.95 ± 9.1 years) voluntarily participated in a web-based survey. eating disorder symptoms and physical activity levels were evaluated using the eating attitudes test-26 (eat-26) and the international physical activity questionnaire-short form (ipaq-sf). brunel mood scale (brums) was used to evaluate the mood status of the participants. the mann-whitney u test was used to compare differences between groups. the significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. results: it was demonstrated that the physical activity levels of athletes were superior to that of the non-athlete controls (p = 0.001), but non-athletes revealed healthier dietary habits than elite athletes (p = 0.049). it was also observed that the mood status of elite athletes was not significantly different from non-athletes (p = 0.71). conclusions: as shown in the results section, athletes had more favorable levels of physical activity during the covid-19 pandemic than their fellow non-athletes, but this superiority had no positive effect on their moods. moreover, non-athletes had healthier dietary habits than non-athletes.