Effects of 'COVID lockdown deconditioning' webinar becomes blockbuster

Glasgow Caledonian University’s Professor of Ageing Dawn Skelton led a sell-out Deconditioning: Where Are We Now? webinar on the three-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK.

Within less than 24 hours of tickets becoming available, the webinar which originally had a limit of 150 people, was completely sold out. It then had to be opened up to more than 500 attendees because of the high demand.

Professor Skelton said lockdown deconditioning – a syndrome of physical, psychological and functional decline that occurs as a result of prolonged inactivity and associated loss of muscle strength – has triggered a rehabilitation pandemic.

The School of Health and Life Sciences Research Centre for Health (ReaCH) team, who were organising the event, had to reset the maximum limit of potential attendees twice. Six days later, 522 people had registered from the UK, Ireland, Singapore and Greece.

On the launch day, 23 March 2023 - marking three years since the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown - 288 attended the webinar live.

The event was recorded for those who could not attend live and since it went online last week, more than 200 people have watched the session on the WatchGCU YouTube Channel.

ReaCH hosted the webinar on behalf of the 4 Nations Falls Collaborative group, which brings together stakeholders involved in the prevention of falls, including those from the NHS, public health, allied health professions (AHPs) and the third sector.

Professor Skelton, Ageing Well Research Group Co-Lead in the School of Health and Life Sciences ReaCH, who chaired the webinar on behalf of the 4 Nations Collaborative, was blown away by the turnout.

She said: “We only started advertising the webinar through our networks six days before the event and within a day I was getting messages on social media asking if the event was going to be recorded as it had sold out!

“This just shows that the health workforce are seeking solutions. In their working day they live and breathe the increase in frailty of older people three years on from that first prolonged lockdown.

“The continued shielding, lack of routine, long-term condition management and social isolation have had a huge effect on older people’s physical function and the ability to maintain independent living. This, coupled with the considerable staffing issues across health and social care, mean that services are now struggling with a rehabilitation pandemic.”

Professor Skelton, with other prominent academics and AHPs predicted a rehabilitation pandemic as a result of the social restrictions during the pandemic in a research paper published in August 2020.

Professor Skelton added: “The abrupt halting of physical activity and then sustained shielding or social restrictions placed on older people led to a step-change in older people’s sedentary behaviour and a consequent reduction in muscle mass, physical fitness and confidence in movement, leading to reduced social engagement, physical, psychological and mental health.

“Accident and Emergency Departments, ambulance services, elective surgery, wards for care of older people, care homes and care at home services are all experiencing increased levels of frailty and care needs.”

During the webinar, Professor Skelton gave an overview of evidence of the effects of deconditioning over the three years since the first lockdown.

She also spoke about innovative projects aimed at preventing deconditioning in hospital and in those diagnosed with dementia, a community-based exercise project and the use of the electronic frailty index to support frailer older people preparing for elective surgery.

Speakers included Julia Clayton, AHP Dementia Specialist Physiotherapist, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wales; Hannah Niland, Senior Physiotherapist, Fordingbridge Hospital, England; Éamonn Doherty, Physiotherapist and Community Falls Coordinator, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland; Lianne McInally, AHP Senior Manager, East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, Scotland.