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The association between physical activity and assisted care use among Chinese older adults
1Department of Health Education, Zhenba Disease Prevention and Control Center, Hanzhong, Shaanxi, China.
Background:
This study investigated the association between physical activity (PA) and informal assisted care use and the number of days of informal assisted care use in older Chinese adults.
Methods:
Data were drawn from 4 waves (2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. In total, 2603 participants (≥60 years) at the baseline participated at least once in the follow-up examinations. PA was measured by a modified version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Informal assisted care use and the number of days of informal assisted care use was measured by a self-reported questionnaire. The generalized estimated equation logistic regression was used to model the associations between PA and informal assisted care use and the number of days of informal assisted care use.
Results:
From baseline to wave 4, 46.4 %, 51.3 %, 52.6 % and 59.0 % of participants had insufficient PA (i.e. not meeting WHO recommendations for PA), and the percentage of participants who used informal assisted care was 15.3 %, 25.8 %, 31.5 % and 35.5 %, respectively. The results showed that participants who had insufficient PA had higher odds of informal assisted care use (OR: 1.60; 95 % CI: 1.28, 1.99) and more days of informal assisted care use (≥30 days: OR: 2.19; 95 % CI: 1.64, 2.93) than those who had sufficient PA.
Conclusions:
Insufficient PA is associated with more informal assisted care use and more days of informal assisted care use. More studies are needed to understand the impact of physical activity on informal assisted care demands among older adults.
