Epidemic-Specific Social Capital, Physical Activity and Health Status

During the widespread of COVID-19, stay-at-home and social distancing have become the important means of epidemic prevention, but they also have changed patterns of human interaction. Under this circumstance, the impact of epidemic-specific social capital on physical activity and health status is examined.A most recent survey of WeChat networkers shows the following results.Bonding social capital and bridging social capital are the two main components of epidemic-specific social capital, and both jointly promote physical activity participation and health status.Physical isolation moderates the effect of epidemic-specific social capital on physical activity and health status.Physical activity mediates the effect of epidemic-specific social capital on health status and its mediating role is significant.The following conclusions are supported:① Physical isolation during the epidemic is an effective way to maintain people's health status. ② The epidemic-specific social capital plays an important role during the epidemic, and its feature of maintaining interpersonal relationship can improve the effectiveness of epidemic prevention. ③ Although physical isolation limits physical exercise conditions, intimate interactions and online communications can encourage new forms of physical activity, paving the path to smooth transition of the pandemic.