*Strengths and Limitations of the Study*

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study with a relatively large number of participants to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions on the PA behaviour of Kosovan population.

As a strength, it is worth noting that, besides having a representative sample form the entire country, in this study, the participants' living environment was also included. Taking into consideration the importance of PA and the maintenance of its levels during COVID-19 home confinement, we think that these results could be of importance to plan and develop proper strategies and policies when facing situations such as a pandemic.

Beside its strengths, this study also had some limitations that should be acknowledged. PA was not objectively measured, but was assessed by a self-reported questionnaire, increasing the risk of self-reporting bias. Nevertheless, since the questionnaire was administered both before and during COVID-19 home confinement, this bias does not influence our results to a great extent.

Another limitation is the comparability with the other studies, which, for their purposes, have used different methodologies and instruments.

A limitation that must be highlighted is the fact that it was not possible to demonstrate the validity of the questionnaire through the common analysis methods (i.e., using objective measures of PA from movement devices such as accelerometers or pedometers for comparison with the self-reported measures) [54]. In fact, the common analysis methods used for the validation are:


However, we were unable to perform either the first or second method due to government restrictive measures which limited the possibilities of PA and therefore the consequent objective measure of PA practiced.

However, although the instrument used has detected the PA levels related to two different periods (i.e., pre- and during COVID-19 confinement measures) in a single administration, it should be noted that:

