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Satisfaction with Life, Health, and Leisure-Time Physical Activity in Middle-Aged and Older Adults with a Spinal Cord
Laura Stendell1,2, Peter W Stubbs1, Kris Rogers3
1Discipline of Physiotherapy, Graduate School of Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Objectives:
To investigate the associations between leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and (a) activity and participation, (b) satisfaction with life, (c) quality of life, and (d) perceived health in middle-aged and older Australians with a spinal cord injury (SCI).
Methods:
We performed a retrospective secondary analysis on the LTPA data from the Australian cohort of the International SCI Survey in participants over 45 years. We described the sample and their participation in LTPA using multivariable linear regression to estimate the association between the variables of interest and LTPA.
Results:
For 1281 participants over 45 years, the mean (±SD) age was 62.7 (±10.1) years, and the mean time since injury was 18.7 (±14.8) years. There was an association between total weekly participation in LTPA (in hours per week) and an increase in satisfaction with life (β = 0.13, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.18), perceived health rating (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.96), and quality of life (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.07) and a very minor decrease in activity and participation problems (β = -0.17, 95% CI -0.26 to -0.09). These associations were slightly stronger, albeit still weak, for moderate-to-heavy LTPA intensities.
Conclusion:
Both total weekly and moderate-to-heavy LTPA participation were weakly associated with better self-perceived health, quality of life, and satisfaction with life in individuals over 45 years with SCI in Australia. LTPA is not likely to have a clinically meaningful impact on reducing problems with activity and participation in this population.
