Exploring Time Period-, Sex-, and Age-related Changes in the Results of Health Checkups Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: People’s daily lives have changed during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Our study revealed several changes in metrics indicative of general health and well-being during the two years of the pandemic compared to the previous three years, based on annual health examinations. We explored time period-, sex-, and age-related changes in health status under pandemic-related circumstances.

Methods: We used a dataset of 56,368 participants aged 30–69 years who underwent health checkups between March 2017 and February 2022. Data were divided into five periods. Body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and uric acid (UA) levels were measured. A three-way ANOVA was conducted to examine the effects of the time period, sex, and age.

Results: During the pandemic, SBP and DBP of the two sexes showed opposite trends. Women showed an increase throughout the five periods, whereas men showed a decrease. In all samples, FPG and HbA1c levels increased and then decreased during the pandemic, and UA levels increased before the pandemic but decreased in the first year of the pandemic.

Conclusions: SBP and DBP showed opposite trends in men and women, whereas other results showed no significant difference. However, prolongation of the pandemic could further impact societal behavior and lead to changes in future outcomes. We need to consider new methods to improve people’s lives through information-sharing and support tailored to the individual.