The measures implemented to control the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in people around the world becoming accustomed to new realities such as social distancing (Grenita et al., 2020). However, while social distancing measures can help to reduce COVID-19 infection rates, these measures have also been found to negatively impact physical and mental health by restricting participation in daily activities, travel, leisure activities, physical activities, and various forms of exercise (e.g., as a result of the closure of gyms and restrictions regarding group meetings; Figueroa and Aguilera, 2020; Hossain et al., 2020).

In fact, social distancing-induced reductions in physical activity have been observed in many countries around the world (Ammar et al., 2020; Güzel et al., 2020), and studies have reported that the prolonged nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated mitigation efforts could lead to secondary negative effects concerning the health and welfare of both patients as well as the general population (Gasmi et al., 2020; Lippi et al., 2020).

To reduce their risk of infection, people have adopted preventive health behaviors. Preventive health behaviors refer to activities such as refraining from visiting crowded places, maintaining high levels of personal hygiene (such as avoiding touching one’s eyes, nose, and lips with unwashed hands), and remaining up-to-date on associated events by frequently watching COVID-19-related broadcast programs (Kim and Cho, 2020). Recently, some researchers have suggested that, along with everyday preventive measures, regular physical activity is also needed to prevent the disease (Chen et al., 2020b). Considering this finding, and the fact that low physical activity can increase global mortality (Kohl et al., 2012), it seems clear that public health officials should emphasize the importance of engaging in physical activity in order to maintain good health during the pandemic.

However, in Korea, the COVID-19 situation has restricted people’s ability to participate in leisure sports by implementing social distancing and social isolation measures at the national level (Bond et al., 2020).

In Korea, many public spaces where people can exercise and improve their health, such as public exercise facilities, gymnasiums, and other physical activity-related institutions/facilities, are currently closed (Shin, 2020a), resulting in structural constraints on sports activities. Furthermore, a variety of interpersonal constraints have also arisen as a result of the COVID-19 prevention measures, as restrictions on public gatherings mean that people are unable to meet with friends, peers, groups, or others to participate in leisure activities (Freire, 2020).

Social constraints imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic limit an individual’s participation in leisure activities and have a huge impact on the external environment and psychological state of the individual (Crawford and Godbey, 1987). Restrictions on participation in various leisure sports can lead to emotional unease including stress, frustration, despair, and conflict. In addition, negative experiences caused by restrictions on leisure activities can lead to several problems in the long run (Rushing et al., 2019).

In light of this, people are engaging in various means of overcoming restrictions for leisure activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, indoor leisure-sports activities such as “Corona Home Training” have grown increasingly popular around the world, as these activities can be performed alone at home (Lee, 2020). In addition, there are reports of large numbers of people participating in outdoor leisure sports activities such as hiking, which have a relatively lower risk of infection when compared to indoor exercises (Shin, 2020b).

To date, there have been several studies on COVID-19-related preventive behaviors (e.g., Chan et al., 2020), the relationship between preventive measures and regular exercise (Chen et al., 2020b), and limitations on performing recreational activities during quarantine (Güzel et al., 2020). Most of these studies have focused on quarantine environments (López-Bueno et al., 2020) and on making recommendations for improving one’s health by engaging in physical activities while taking care to prevent infection (Nyenhuis et al., 2020). However, there is a lack of research regarding the preventive health behaviors adopted by participants in indoor and outdoor leisure sports activities, as well as the level of constraints these people experience with regard to performing such activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the types of leisure sports people are engaging in during the current pandemic situation, and to analyze, in terms of demographic characteristics, the relationship between participants’ adoption of preventive health behaviors and their constraints regarding performing sports activities. This investigation helps to provide a basic understanding of leisure sports participation and related constraints, which could prove useful in the case of any future pandemics.

This study analyzed, in terms of demographic characteristics, the relationship between preventive health behaviors and leisure constraints among leisure sports participants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We found that women who participated in both indoor and outdoor leisure sports showed a higher level of adoption of preventive health behaviors as compared to men. This accords with the findings of Kim and Cho (2020), who reported that women had higher adoption of COVID-19-preventive behaviors and better psychosocial health when compared to men. While the present study did not consider the influence of gender on COVID-19 preventive behaviors (Smith, 2019), one reason why women show higher adoption of preventive health behaviors may be that they commonly play the roles of caregivers and front-line health care staff for their families (Wenham et al., 2020). Preventive health behaviors were highly prevalent in the groups aged 50-62 years. A possible reason for this may be that COVID-19 has the highest mortality rate among older people. Thus, they may feel a responsibility to be more mindful of their actions.

Furthermore, COVID-19 is an infectious disease that can be transmitted through contact with other people. All of the participants in outdoor sports activities who avoided enclosed spaces for health-related reasons, and participants of indoor sports such as badminton or swimming, in which there is a risk of infection through contact with the bodily fluids of others, were aware of the risk of infection, and engaged in preventive behaviors. In other words, the fact that there were no differences in terms of gender, age, participation experience, or participants’ companions in relation to the preventive health behaviors for both indoor and outdoor leisure sports participants indicates a generally high level of adoption of preventive health behaviors in the society during the current pandemic. In Kim and Cho (2020), adoption of COVID-19 preventive behaviors was found to be high among the adolescents and adults in their 60s; however, this study did not research the adolescent age group, indicating a gap that should be addressed in future studies. Nevertheless, we can conclude that, in situations of epidemics or infectious diseases, guidelines are required to help people exercise preventive health behaviors while engaging in healthy leisure sports.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, sports participation in Korea can be divided into indoor sports, such as life sports involving virtual reality (Kim, 2020) and home training that is easily done at home (Lee, 2020), and outdoor sports, such as hiking alone or with a single companion (to facilitate social distancing; Kang and Ban, 2020).

Intrinsic factors have been found to be more important than other factors for determining leisure participation (Ajzen and Driver, 1991). However, in the COVID-19 situation, demographic characteristics create differences in the leisure constraints of the participants in indoor and outdoor sports. Our findings indicated that the group of participants who performed sports alone experienced higher interpersonal constraints when compared to those who participated with friends of the same or opposite gender. This may be because COVID-19-related mitigation measures such as social distancing are widespread, causing people to exercise additional caution regarding interpersonal relationships (Kim and Cho, 2020). In other words, constraints on indoor and outdoor physical activities and limitations regarding access to public spaces may have exacerbated the sense of isolation for those who were isolating as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (Güzel et al., 2020).

Married participants who performed indoor leisure sports generally showed higher levels of structural constraints. This may be because parents with school-going children typically spend a lot of time at home (Jung, 2020), or face limitations performing leisure activities as a result of responsibilities relating to work, housekeeping, etc. In addition, married individuals often engage in family leisure activities. They were reluctant to engage in indoor activities as poor ventilation indoors may lead to higher chances of being infected by COVID-19, which would increase the health risk for their families. Many studies have reported that, while people want to participate in leisure activities, time constraints are a primary preventive reason (Kim et al., 2015). Notably, availability of time has a strong influence on the presence of structural constraints (Iso-Ahola, 1980). Additionally, most leisure activity participation incurs additional costs. Along with time-related factors, economic constraints may be particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because COVID-19 has created a crisis for the global economy; the International Monetary Fund has reported that the COVID-19 pandemic may result in a deterioration in the economic activity of women worldwide, creating issues concerning income inequality and work-family balance (Korean Herald, 2020). This phenomenon suggests that, in addition to income inequality, there is the potential that structural issues such as “work-leisure conflicts” and “disease-leisure conflicts” will arise in pandemic situations. Therefore, it is necessary to take such changes in lifestyle into account when promoting participation in leisure sports.

There are some limitations to this study. While the study population was selected from across Korea and comprised actual participants in leisure sports during the COVID-19 pandemic, the sample comprised just 541 subjects; nevertheless, this study may be valuable as preliminary research. Second, the results of this study may differ when compared to situations before and after COVID-19, as this study was conducted while the pandemic was still in progress. Third, because the study was limited to Korea, results may differ depending on the restrictions and containment of COVID-19 in other countries. Fourth, this study did not include those who discontinued sports during the pandemic. A follow-up study is necessary to analyze the influence of psychological factors by comparing those who stopped and those who continued to participate in sports activities during the pandemic period.

In conclusion, leisure-sports participants were found to show high adoption of preventive health behaviors during the COVID-19 situation, and to experience interpersonal constraints when participating in indoor or outdoor leisure sports alone (i.e., the social isolation measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic have restricted opportunities for group participation in leisure sports). These results suggest how people participating in leisure sports should adapt to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, personal and institutional efforts should be made to promote participation in leisure sports and better social interaction in any similar epidemic in the future.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

The studies involving participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of Research University of Chung-Ang (1041078-202007-HRSB-170-01). The participants provided their on-line written informed consent to participate in this study.

Y-JK designed the study, while Y-JP conducted the study and analyzed the data. Y-JP interpreted the data, and wrote and revised the manuscript. Y-JK and J-HC revised and improved the quality of the analyses performed, critically revised the draft, and made important contributions. All of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.