Research articleFrequent and occasional physical activity in the elderly: A 12-year follow-up study of mortality
Introduction
Little is known about the relationship between different levels of physical activity and mortality among the elderly. Past studies of middle-aged women and men have demonstrated an association between physical activity and increased longevity.1, 2 Moreover, individual changes over time to a more sedentary lifestyle were associated with increased all-cause mortality.3 However, past research into physical activity and mortality among the elderly is sparse4, 5 and inconsistent. For example, some studies have even shown an inverse effect between no physical activity and all-cause mortality among the elderly.6, 7 An explanation for this inconsistency may be that some of the previous studies focusing on elderly people have not adjusted for self-rated health. Thus, these studies do not permit evaluation of physical inactivity that is not a result of disease processes. Moreover, the beneficial effect of vigorous versus moderate physical activity on longevity is controversial.8, 9
The purpose of this 12-year follow-up study was to analyze the association between five levels of physical activity and all-cause mortality for people aged ≥65 using a random sample representative of the entire Swedish population. The first aim of this study was to examine to what extent different levels of physical activity are associated with all-cause mortality in people aged ≥65. The second aim was to examine whether the hypothesized association between physical activity and all-cause mortality remains after adjustment for confounders such as age, educational status, smoking habits, body mass index (BMI), diabetes, hypertension, and self-rated health.
Section snippets
Methods
A simple, random sample from the Swedish Annual Level-of-Living Survey (SALLS), a national survey conducted by Statistics Sweden of the non-institutionalized population was used in this study. The sample consisted of 1792 women and 1414 men, aged ≥65, surveyed in 1988 and 1989. The sample represented 792,000 women and 616,000 men of the Swedish population aged ≥65. The participants were interviewed face-to-face by trained interviewers about their living conditions, including questions about
Results
There were 925 deaths among women and 881 deaths among men. Age-adjusted all-cause mortality rates by explanatory variables are shown in Table 1. For both men and women, the highest mortality rates were observed among those who reported low educational status, physical inactivity, current smoking, underweight, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, or poor self-rated health.
Table 2 shows age-adjusted HRs with 95% CIs for all-cause mortality by explanatory variables, separated by gender. Self-rated
Discussion
The main finding of this study is that leisure-time physical activity decreases all-cause mortality among men and women aged ≥65. Even occasional physical activity was associated with decreased mortality among the elderly. For those who were physically active about twice a week or vigorously at least twice a week the reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality was about the same as for those who were physically active once a week after adjustment for all the explanatory variables, including
Conclusions
These findings provide some evidence that all-cause mortality is reduced when elderly men and women are physically active. Even occasional physical activity seems to be of great value for longevity. Preventive resources among elderly should provide more opportunities for physical activity. For example, senior centers could offer retirees moderate exercise such as walking in groups or bicycling, and healthcare professionals should encourage elderly people to be physically active, even
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (1 R01 HL71084-01), the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (2001-2373), the Swedish Research Council (K2001-27X-11651-06C), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and the Stockholm County Council.
We are grateful to Sanna Sundquist, student at Foothill College, California, for technical assistance.
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