Introduction
The spread of COVID-19 has changed the lifestyles of people all over the
world [1]. Restrictions of movements and inter-individual physical
contact have been widely implemented [2], and a variety of
prevention measures have been encouraged [3]. The current study
focuses on such changes brought to Japanese people’s daily behaviors by
the pandemic. In recent years, many studies have been vigorously
investigating behavioral changes brought by the pandemic, and most of
them highlight their impacts on mental health. For example,
participation in physical exercises has significantly reduced since the
virus outbreak, which is strongly associated with mental health
deterioration [4-6]. Time spent on sedentary behaviors and internet
use, on the contrary, greatly increased, and they are also reported to
enhance mental illness symptoms [5,7]. Another line of research on
behavior changes focuses on prevention behaviors such as mask-wearing
and hand washing. While engaging in the prevention behaviors is becoming
a new social norm worldwide [8-10], the extent of engagement appears
to be influenced by age [11], perceived risk of COVID-19 [12],
and personality [13].
Instead of investigating the psychological impacts of behavior changes,
the present research aimed to describe the dynamics of changes
experienced by people of different ages and gender, varying in their
family structures and socio-economic backgrounds. The study aims to
reveal how those demographic features mediate the behavior changes
caused by the pandemic. Investigating the influence of demography on
behavior change is vital because our lifestyles are, at least to some
extent, determined by it. For example, the pandemic has reduced people’s
opportunities to exercise [6], but their frequency is likely
influenced by their age, gender, and possibly family structures. Indeed,
females engage in physical exercises generally less than males [14],
and thus, the impact of the pandemic on males and females is not
identical [4].
Targeting a wide variety of activities is also very important to grasp
the actual lifestyle changes people have been experiencing. It is,
however, difficult for researchers to investigate many behaviors at once
in a study, and thus, most of them only target pre-selected behaviors.
The most common way to assess behavior changes among the
pandemic-related research is to present participants with
multiple-choice questions about those selected behaviors. The questions
are often about the frequency or duration of specific activities, and
participants select answers describing their state before and during the
pandemic [4-6,15,16]. However, with the multiple-choice method, only
a limited number of behaviors can be measured, and it is insufficient
for the current research purpose. Thus, the present research used a
free-response method.
This study asked participants to report activities they often engage in.
Precisely, participants wrote down up to ten activities that are
practiced most often in their daily lives. Approximately 300 Japanese
adults in various age groups participated in the survey conducted in
February 2021. Firstly, they were asked to recall their life before the
COVID-19 outbreak to produce responses. Once they have done so, they
responded about their current behaviors. The appearance rate of each
behavior before and after the outbreak was compared. This procedure does
not limit the target behaviors to those in the mind of the researchers.
Although this method does not precisely record the frequency of
particular action being performed, the responses should reflect
participants’ subjective significance of the behaviors and their
frequency in occurrence. Consequently, the results will provide a
broader picture of behavioral changes experienced by people with varying
demographics.