Fig. 1From: Health promoting behaviour of medical versus non-medical students during COVID-19 pandemic: results from the COLA cross-sectional studyA, Perceived change in physical activity in medical students and non-medical students during lockdown. Participants were asked if the amount of physical activity they did since introduction of lockdown measures was more, less or unchanged compared to before. Medical students stated to have altered their physical activity slightly differently compared to non-medical students. 471 medical students (41.2%) decreased and 395 (34.5%) increased physical activity, compared to 390 non-medical students (49.9%) who decreased and only 233 (29.8%) who increased physical activity (p < 0.01). B, Daily step count during lockdown. Step count data from smartphones or wearables were provided for two representative time periods before, and during, lockdown. Since the introduction of lockdown, daily number of steps was significantly reduced in each group (p < 0.01). Already before lockdown, median daily step was significantly higher among medical students (median [IQR], 6979 [5218–9348] steps) compared to other students, (6581 [4497–8491] steps, p = 0.020). This difference was even more pronounced during the lockdown (medical students, 5469 [2865–8330] vs. other students, 4135 [2036–6858], p < 0.001)Back to article page