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. 2024 Jul 17;21(1):20.
doi: 10.1186/s11556-024-00355-6.

Daily physical activity in older adults across levels of care: the HUNT Trondheim 70 + study

Astrid Ustad  1 , Karen Sverdrup  2   3 , Gro Gujord Tangen  2   3   4 , Øystein Døhl  5   6 , Beatrix Vereijken  5 , Pernille Thingstad  5   7 , Nina Skjæret-Maroni  5
Affiliations

Daily physical activity in older adults across levels of care: the HUNT Trondheim 70 + study

Astrid Ustad et al. Eur Rev Aging Phys Act. .

Abstract

Background: Physical activity (PA) is imperative for healthy ageing and is a modifiable lifestyle factor. Accurate, clinically meaningful estimates of daily PA among older adults can inform targeted interventions to maintain function and independence. This study describes daily PA in older adults across levels of care as a first step contributing to the limited evidence on potential associations between PA and the use of care services.

Methods: This study used data from the Trondheim 70 + cohort in the population-based Norwegian HUNT Study. In total, 1042 participants aged 70 years or older with valid activity data were included. PA was assessed using two accelerometers over 7 consecutive days and was classified into PA (walking, standing, running, and cycling) and sedentary behavior (sitting and lying). Data on received care services were retrieved from municipal registers and participants were classified into four levels of care: 1) independently living (81.9%), 2) independently living with low-level home care services (6.5%), 3) recipients of home care services (6.0%), and 4) nursing home residents (5.7%). Time spent in the activity types and duration of bouts are presented across levels of care.

Results: Participants mean age was 77.5 years (range: 70.1-105.4, 55% female) and PA was lower with higher age. Across levels of care, significant group differences were found in the total time spent in PA, particularly in walking and standing. Daily PA, duration of active bouts, and number of daily walking bouts were lower for participants receiving higher levels of care. Standing was the dominant type of PA and walking appeared predominantly in short bouts at all care levels.

Conclusions: This is the first population-based study using device-measured PA to describe daily PA across levels of care. The results showed that low-intensity activities constitute the primary component of everyday PA, advocating for placing greater emphasis on the significant role these activities play in maintaining daily PA at older age. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that activity types and bout durations are related to the ability to live independently among older adults. Overall, these findings can contribute to better target interventions to maintain function and independence in older adults.

Keywords: Accelerometry; Care services; Daily physical behavior; Device-measured activity; Older adults; Physical activity; Sedentary behavior; Walking bouts.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of activity types by age group and sex. Mean daily hours are showed inside the bars. Number of participants are given at the top
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of activity types in percentage of time awake by level of care
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of daily active bouts (a) and number of daily walking bouts (b) in categories of bout duration by level of care. Walking bouts contain walking only, while active bouts contain the activity types walking, standing, running, and cycling. Note that the scale of the y-axis is different in the two plots
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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