Well-being and Long-term Physical Activity Participation in Midlife Adults: A Latent Class Analysis

Despite the benefits of physical activity, a large majority of adults fail to get the recommended amount of regular exercise, and interventions to increase physical activity typically achieve only temporary improvements. The potential contribution of positive psychological functioning to the maintenance of physical activity has not been widely examined.

To test the hypothesis that psychological well-being would increase the likelihood of sustained physical activity in adults using a person-centered approach with longitudinal data.

Participants (N = 2,214) were from the longitudinal Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS). Continuous latent variables representing physical activity at three waves of MIDUS were used to partition respondents into distinct (categorical) classes based on longitudinal activity profiles.

Latent class analyses identified three distinct physical activity profiles: sustained, consistently low, and declining activity (the normative class). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that the odds of membership in the sustained activity class were significantly higher for those with higher eudaimonic well-being (OR = 1.08 [1.03-1.13], p = .001), after adjustment for diverse covariates. Supplemental analyses revealed similar associations for specific subdomains of eudaimonic well-being.

This study provides evidence that greater well-being may help sustain physical activity in the long term. These results suggest that improving well-being may be a useful addition to interventions aimed at increasing long-term physical activity participation.