Monitoring of interest of Brazilian internet users in issues related to physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The objective of this work was to identify and describe search patterns for terms related to physical exercise on the Internet during the year 2020, in Brazil, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when restrictive measures of movement of people were implemented at different scales throughout the national territory. Google Trends was used as a data collection tool, obtained in the format of relative search volume (VRB) and divided into 3 distinct moments referring to 36 weeks of the year 2020: pre-pandemic (before the official decree), phase one (initial phase of the pandemic between March and June) and phase two (June to end of August, with escalation in the number of cases). The VRB was collected from the terms "walking", "bodybuilding", "running", "CrossFit" and "Cycling". Two categories were used as search filter: "hobbies and leisure", "physical conditioning". To compare the changes in VRB in these periods, we conducted analysis of repeated measurements and the Friedman Test, depending on the normality of the data. We adopted a 95% confidence index and ≤ 0.05 in all tests. The terms "walking", "cycling" and "running" showed significant high in vrb during the pandemic, in both categories, but mainly in "hobbies and leisure". The term "bodybuilding" remained stable, with high VRB in the category "physical conditioning". The interest in outdoor activities, especially cycling, was the one that aroused the greatest interest among Brazilian internet users during the year 2020, especially in the context of leisure. Bodybuilding still dominates the public interest in the context of physical conditioning, even in a context of pandemic and restrictive measures. This type of analysis allows us to infer about the interests of the public and can guide decision-making in relation to public policies or a professional marketing direction.