Background: We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on college students’ physical activity.
Methods: All cohort studies, comparing college students undertaking physical exercise at school before the COVID-19 pandemic and physical exercise at home during the COVID-19 pandemic will be included in this review. We will use index words related to college students, physical exercise and COVID-19 to perform literature searches in PubMed, Medline, Embase and CNKI databases, to include articles indexed as of June 20, 2021 in English and Chinese language. Two reviewers will independently select trials for inclusion, assess trial quality and extract information for each included trials. Primary outcomes are exercise frequency, duration and intensity and associated factors. Based on Cochrane assessment tool, we will evaluate the risk of bias of the included studies. Revman 5.3 will be used for heterogeneity assessment, data synthesis, subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis and generating funnel-plots.
Discussion: The stronger evidence about the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity will be provided, so as to better guide teaching practice.
Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42021262390.