Correlates of total physical activity among middle-aged and elderly women.
Orsini N, Bellocco R, Bottai M, Pagano M, Wolk A.
Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. nicola.orsini@ki.se
Information on correlates of total physical activity (PA) levels among middle-aged and elderly women is limited. This article aims to investigate whether total daily PA levels are associated with age, body mass index, smoking, drinking status, and sociodemographic factors. In a cross-sectional study of 38,988 women between the ages of 48 and 83 years residing in central Sweden, information on PA, weight, height, smoking, drinking, and sociodemographic factors was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Total daily PA levels were measured as metabolic equivalents (MET-h/day). Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by ordinal logistic regression models. We observed decreasing level of total PA with increasing age (for 5-year increase: OR = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.85-0.89) and body mass index (for 5-unit, kg/m2, increase: OR = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.79-0.84). Multivariable adjusted correlates of total PA level were smoking (current vs. never: OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.79-0.88), drinking (current vs. never: OR = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.82-0.94), educational level (university vs. primary: OR = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.51-0.58), employment status (housewife vs. full-work: OR = 2.59; 95% CI: 2.25-2.98), and childhood environment (city vs. countryside: OR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.59-0.65). In the present investigation, among middle-aged and elderly women, the likelihood of engaging in higher total daily PA levels decreased with age, body mass index, educational level, smoking, drinking, and growing up in urban places.
PMID: 17498295 [PubMed]PMCID: PMC1876468