The COVID-19 pandemic has left indelible marks across various domains of life, and recent research from Wuhan, China, sheds light on its formidable impacts on student health. A comprehensive study focusing on male university students revealed alarming deterioration in physical endurance and lung capacity associated with the pandemic’s upheavals.
Conducted over four years from 2019 to 2022, the findings reported by researchers from Wuhan Textile University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Huazhong Agricultural University highlighted a clear decline among participants engaged in measuring physical endurance through timed 1000-meter runs. This large-scale retrospective cohort study, which included 10,037 healthy first-year male students, sought to analyze how the COVID-19 pandemic altered their physical abilities during different pandemic periods.
Results indicated significant drops in performance during the pandemic years, particularly noted during early lockdowns and again as the pandemic subsided. Of notable concern, all participants saw their mean completion times for the 1000-m run increase, with associations made between body mass index (BMI) and run performance, leading to significant conclusions about the need for supportive fitness initiatives.
According to the study published on March 13, 2025, the underweight and normal BMI groups experienced annual increases, which corresponded with deteriorated running times. “All participants showed unanimous substantial drops in [vital capacity] after the pandemic,” the authors noted, emphasizing the transition from prepandemic levels of physical performance.
Measured against their prepandemic performances from 2019, the underweight, normal BMI, and overweight groups displayed pronounced declines from 2020 through 2022, with evidence showing overall weaker lung capacities affecting their endurance capabilities significantly throughout the pandemic periods. This was contrary to the obese group, which exhibited no notable declines across the same timeline.
These findings arise from the annual physical fitness assessment program mandated for university students, which involved assessing participants' body height, weight, and overall health metrics, alongside their running performance. The examination of factors such as BMI proved this research to be extensive and varied, reinforcing the wide-reaching impacts of changing lifestyle habits under pandemic confinement.
Participants were excluded from the study due to medical conditions or COVID-19 infections themselves, allowing the authors to focus solely on healthy individuals and unpack the social conditioning during lockdown periods. The IRB of Tongji Hospital oversaw the investigation, ensuring ethical rigor throughout.
Interestingly, correlations were identified: the time taken to finish the 1000-m run demonstrated negative relationships with overall height, yet shown to correlate positively with body weight and BMI. These elements are significant as the body composition shifts during the pandemic had clear ramifications on overall health, underlining the pandemic’s effect on physical fitness among youths.
“Our findings showed deterioration in physical endurance and VC among university students during the pandemic,” the authors emphasized, bringing attention to public health issues arising from lockdown-induced inactivity. Two specific timeframes illustrated the performance weaknesses: first, immediately after the pandemic outbreak and second, during the recovery phase. These two periods highlighted vulnerabilities among the student population, necessitating interventions aimed at maintaining physical activity and awareness of health.
The researchers recommended reinforcing cardiopulmonary exercise tolerance among university students, not only as lockdown measures were lifted but as part of long-term health and wellness objectives post-pandemic. The necessity for national programs such as those instituted online by the Ministry of Education of China was underlined, highlighting the role of structured physical education programs meeting the needs of students during such unprecedented circumstances.
With rising BMI levels among participants and decreasing lung capacities recorded, the study calls for stronger measures to accommodate young adults physically adapting to new conditions. Further investigations must continue to assess the ramifications of extended periods of inactivity not just during pandemics but as part of adapting to modern stresses.
Through this lens, the enduring impacts of the pandemic reveal opportunities for educational institutions to innovate responses to crises—to prioritize physical health initiatives and embed them deeply within the educational framework, equipping future generations with resilience and fitness awareness as they face uncertain times.