Impact of COVID-19 partial lockdown on household activities in a sample of Kuwaiti and Saudi populations.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, partial lockdown has been used as a strict mechanism to constrain the spread of the disease. This study aims to investigate whether there are significant differences between socio-demographic variables and household and family activities before and during the partial lockdown in Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive cross-sectional method was used in this study. Online surveys were distributed via WhatsApp to a convenience non-probability sample of 728 participants. The survey contained socio-demographic information and a 22-item questionnaire of activities that participants practiced before and during the partial lockdown. An IBM SPSS (25.0) package was utilised to analyse the data. The study found that males and homemakers reported obvious changes for both house and family activities before and during the lockdown. Participants between 40 and 49 years old reported higher scores for family activities before the lockdown. Married participants reported higher scores for house and family activities during the lockdown. The outcomes of this study demonstrate that under certain circumstances in society, cultural gender activities may change due to various reasons such as health precaution regulations, prevention policies, and social isolation.