Temporal rhythms are actively reproduced in everyday life and are understood as accumulations of everyday practices, as performances of coordinating and stabilizing relations between practices [1]. In everyday life, we need to prioritize where routines, habits, and practices are autonomous in order to manage and bind our lives. The rhythms of life give us a sense of security and keep us in constant relationships—this is most evident when our routines and habits are disrupted [2]. The state of COronaVIrus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic measures as such a disruptive circumstance, affecting daily practices and disrupting "elementary" routines in such a way that it had a profound effect on overall social integration [3, 4].
In the cross-sectional cohort study in nine European countries, we faced two different situations. Slovenia (SLO) borders Italy (ITA), where citizens witnessed a very serious situation in the first wave of the pandemic in the province of Bergamo, while SLO, in contrast, experienced a "milder" situation as other eastern countries (Slovakia, Croatia and Serbia). This intrigued us to find out how the more serious situation and the higher number of victims, and the resulting severity of the measures taken by Italy compared to Slovenia, affected some lifestyle variables.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in ITA was on January 31, 2020, and when further cases emerged in Codogno (Milan), the ITA government imposed a quarantine on infected individuals, their contacts, and those returning from China, on February 21, 2020. Subsequently stricter measures were imposed for northern ITA on March 8, 2020 “Declaration of Red Zones” and a total lockdown on public life “#stayathome regulation” on March 11, 2020. From March 20, 2020 was forbidden to enter in public parks, playground areas, and to play outside. Sports activities were only allowed near residences [5].
The Slovenian COVID-19 experience has been different, emerging about 20 days later with lower incidence and fewer victims as well as milder movement restrictions. After the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on March 4, 2020 and due to the very difficult situation in Bergamo province (ITA), the SLO government passed the Decree on the Declaration of Contagious Disease SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) on March 12, 2020 declaring the first measures: shut down of kindergartens, schools, universities, and from March 16 of open playgrounds, sport parks, sport training camps, and public transportation. As of March 20, 2020 it was forbidden to enter public areas and from March 30, 2020 mobility was only allowed within the municipal borders of residential cities [6].
SLO measures were initiated later, otherwise comparable to ITA, except for the restriction living the residential and to be physically active, which were stricter in ITA [7]. However, by April 28, 2020, there were 142 times more COVID-19 cases (per capita: 4.9 times) and 325 times more COVID related deaths (per capita: 11.2 times) in ITA than in SLO, and this fact had a significant impact on stricter adherence to restrictions on ITA (Fig. 1) and changed people's everyday life activities more.
It is well known that restrictive measures due to COVID-19 impacted people’s everyday habits [3, 4], however, it is not known how these restrictions impacted two neighbouring countries (SLO and ITA), where COVID-19 restrictive measures lasted for two months with a much worse epidemiological outcome in ITA (especially Northern) than in SLO. Specifically, the quarantine was considered one of the most helpful measures to contain the infection, but on the other hand limited people’s movement outdoors and reduced physical activity mostly to the domestic area.
Because the study examined everyday practices, the research focused on practices that are important to maintain and enhance health, such as domains of physical activity (PA) and, dietary/eating habits that reflect an individual's overall well-being [8]. As smoking and alcohol consumption have been found to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic in some EU countries (Poland and Belgium) [9, 10], these two health-related risk behaviours have also been examined. The positive effects of PA habits on quality of life (QoL) have been demonstrated many times. Not only in active older patients in physical and psychological QoL [11] but also in younger age groups [12], and in chronic patients [13]. PA improves health related QoL in cancer patients [14] and patients with diabetes mellitus [15], where those who met weekly moderate and vigorous PA recommendations reported better physical functioning and were more likely to maintain their physical and overall QoL over time [8]. Covid-19 pandemic studies also suggest an impact on dietary behaviour [4, 16]. Feeling forced to stay indoors because of the lockdown of public life or quarantine could be considered a psychological risk factor for consuming a higher quantitative intake and/or poorer quality (unhealthier) food compared to normal living conditions [17]. The pandemic period could therefore cause changes in dietary habits and energy balance proportions, usually leading to weight gain [17], which is also reflected in QoL.
The aim of the study was to examine the consequences on selected health-related lifestyle variables during COVID-19 restrictions in two neighbouring countries with very different COVID-19 epidemiological impact during COVID-19 first pandemic wave. In light of this, we hypothesized that changes of everyday life practices, such as PA habits, diet (weight gain), health related risk behaviours (alcohol consumption and smoking) and quality of life (QoL) domains were higher in ITA than in SLO due to restrictive government interventions and the severity of COVID-19 epidemiological impact in ITA.