Objective Measurement Of Sedentary And Active Behavior In Older Adults

PURPOSE: To describe the physical activity (PA) behavior of community dwelling older adults, aged 50 to 87 years. METHODS: Two hundred and eighteen older adults (62 men, 66.0 ± 8.5 y; 156 women, 63.8 ± 7.4) participated in this study. Each participant wore a belt-mounted accelerometer (ACC; Actigraph 7164, Fort Walton Beach, FL) for 7 consecutive days. ACC derived PA was categorized into accumulated time spent in sedentary (≤260 cts/min), moderate (1952-5725 cts/min), vigorous (≥5725 cts/min), moderate + vigorous activity (MVPA; >1952 cts/min), and time spent in ≥10 min bouts of MVPA. Means ± SD are presented for all PA classifications. Overall age and gender comparisons were made using independent t-tests. A multivariate ANOVA was performed to explore gender and age category differences (50-59 y, 60-69 y, and 70+ y). RESULTS: On average participants wore the ACC 6.92±0.32 days for 967.29±85.8 min/d. Overall, older adults spent 75.2% of their day in sedentary behavior and 2.9% in MVPA. There were no gender differences in time spent in sedentary or MVPA, but significant differences were noted across age groups. Sedentary behaviors increased significantly with age from 50-59 y to 70+ y (719.2±86.5 to 762.6±75.7 min/d; p=0.044) and 60-69 y to 70+ y (713.1±110.1 to 762.6±75.7 min/d; p=0.011). MVPA decreased significantly with increasing age, 50-59 y to 60-69 y (37.5±25.3 to 28.0±21.9 min/d; p=0.026), 50-59 y to 70+ y (37.5±25.3 to18.4±16.1 min/d; p=0.000), and 60-69 y to 70+ y (28.0±21.9 to 18.4±16.1 min/d; p=0.035). Bouts of MVPA also decreased with increasing age, 50-59 y to 70+ y (15.6±19.0 to 7.0±10.7 min/d; p=0.010). CONCLUSIONS: These findings present an objective measure of an older adult's daily pattern of sedentary and active behavior. Results indicate that older adults are spending a large portion of their day participating in primarily sedentary behavior, with little time spent in accumulated MVPA. MVPA is further reduced when expressed in bouts lasting ≥10 min in duration. Collectively, results worsen with advancement in age. Given that time spent in activities requiring low levels of energy expenditure have been associated with increased risk for chronic disease, efforts to reduce the amount of time older adults spend in sedentary activities are warranted.