疫情下身體活動的新型態與新策略

New ways and strategies for physical activity under the pandemic

COVID-19 的大流行反映出全球公共衛生的艱困。為了避免疫情快速擴散，在世界衛生組織建議實施的一系列公共衛生措施中，除了將疑似感染者隔離之外，各國政府也藉由實施“社交距離”和“不同層級的警戒封鎖”，以遏制COVID-19 的傳播。而一系列的限制措施大幅改變了民眾的生活型態。雖然各項措施有益於控制疫情，但是在封鎖警戒期間，民眾除了缺乏足夠的身體活動（physical activity），長時間處在室內環境對於心理層面也容易帶來憂鬱、焦慮等負向情緒，這也使COVID-19 疫情除了對身體健康造成影響之外，限制性的公共衛生措施可能進而影響到民眾的心理健康。身體活動被視為在疫情期間可以增進身體與心理健康的重要策略。因此在COVID-19 期間促進身體活動是重要且迫切的公共衛生政策。因此，如何在疫情肆虐下讓民眾維持足夠的身體活動量，並增加持續健康行為的動機，進而改善其生理與心理健康，成為非常重要的課題。然而，近期在臺灣實施相關限制措施下，民眾的身體活動習慣受到了極大的改變。各式各樣的線上運動課程成為民眾的運動新選擇。在疫情期間，居家運動成為新的運動型態。此外，結合身體活動與電子遊戲的「運動遊戲」也大受歡迎，搭配智慧顯示科技 （如：擴增實境、虛擬實境等技術） 提供全新型態的運動體驗。透過新型態的方式維持身體活動已成為新趨勢，然而也存在著部分限制與挑戰。如何更有效地利用新興科技輔助滿足身體活動的需求、維持身心健康，也將會是疫情下的新挑戰。

COVID-19 is a thorny challenge of global public health. To curb the rapid spread of the epidemic, the World Health Organization recommends a series of public health measures including “social distance” and “different levels of lockdown”. However, these restrictive measures have completely changed people’s lifestyles. Although these measures are conducive to controlling the pandemic, people usually lack adequate physical activity during the lockdown period. Staying indoors for a long period may easily lead to negative emotions such as depression and anxiety. Therefore, restrictive public health measures may have a detrimental impact on people’s mental health. Physical activity is considered an effective strategy to improve physical and mental health during the pandemic. Thus, it is an important and urgent public health issue to promote physical activity during COVID-19. With the recent implementation of public health restrictions in Taiwan, various online fitness courses have become new choices. In addition, “exergame” which combines physical activity and electronic games is also increasing popularity, with smart display technologies (such as augmented reality, virtual reality, etc.) to provide a brand-new immersive experience while exercising. Exergame is a new way to maintain physical activity has become a new trend, but there are some limitations and challenges. Therefore, it will be a new challenge to maintain physical and mental health with these emerging technologies under the pandemic.