Accumulation of disparity in physical activity in old age

The level of physical activity often declines in old age, although many older people would like to be more active than what they are capable of. This leads to unmet physical activity need, the feeling that one's level of physical activity is inadequate, which is a manifestation of disparity in physical activity in old age. The accumulation of risk factors, including mobility limitations, low socioeconomic status (SES) and lack of social support may increase disparity in physical activity. The aim of this study was to investigate how the accumulation of risk factors is associated with unmet physical activity need in older community-living people.

The study was based on cross-sectional analyses of an observational study with 632 participants. Unmet physical activity need, SES, mobility limitations and availability of social support were self-reported by standardized questionnaires.

Having mobility limitations increased the risk of unmet physical activity need almost four-fold compared to those with no mobility limitations; having mobility limitations and either low SES or not having social support increased the risk over four-fold and having mobility limitations, low SES and no social support further increased the risk over seven-fold.

We found that accumulation of risk factors increases disparity in physical activity.