REMOTE TEACHING AND ITS EFFECTS ON ANXIETY LEVELS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN STUDENTS AT A SCHOOL IN TERESINA-PI

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the level of anxiety and the level of physical activity in students of a state public school of reference, during the remote period. Methods: Cross-sectional observational and descriptive study carried out in Teresina, PI, in 2022. The sample included 60 full-time adolescent students. To assess the level of physical activity, the Habitual Activities questionnaire, translated and modified by Nahas – NuPAF/UFSC, (2003) was applied. With regard to screening for anxiety symptoms, the SCARED (Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emptional Disorders) questionnaire was used to assess categorical variables. The Chi-Square and Fisher's Exact Tests were adopted. Data were exported to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Science version 20.0. The significance level adopted was p ≤ 0.05. Results: The average age of the students was 17 years old, most of them female with a family income of one to two minimum wages. Students showed changes in sleep (91.7%) and claimed to spend more than 8 hours a day in front of a smartphone, tablet, computer screen (53.35%). Data showed that (65.0%) of the students were not physically active, and that (76.7%) were anxious, and there was also a portion of (53.3%) with panic disorders. Above all, it can be highlighted that (71.7%) of the students showed to have generalized anxiety disorders. Conclusion: Adolescent students showed high levels of anxiety, generalized anxiety and panic, they also showed high levels of inactivity.