Abstract
Lack of physical activity (PA) and a high level of physical inactivity (PI) are associated with a higher risk for mortality and responsible for several non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular disease. Higher age is associated with a decrease of PA and an increasing level of PI. Studies have shown that interventions in the elderly have the potential to increase the amount of PA and to decrease the level of PI. However, most interventions are complex, elaborated, time- and resource-consuming. Here, we examined the effect of individual feedback-letters reporting the measured PA and PI in a sample of elderly people in Germany. Primary outcomes of the study were overall PA and PI after 6 months in the intervention group compared to a control group. We examined data from the MOVING intervention study (RCT) for people aged ≥ 65 years living in the northeast of Germany. At baseline, 3 and 6-months follow-up, all study participants wore a 3-axis accelerometer over a period of seven consecutive days. After the baseline measurement, the participants were randomized into intervention and control group. Participants in the intervention group received automatically generated, individualized feedback letters reporting their PA and PI by mail after the baseline measurement and after the 3-months follow-up. A Two-Way Mixed ANOVA with repeated measures was calculated with light, moderate and overall PA as well as PI as dependent variables, and group (between subject) and time (inner subject) as factors. The analysis based on retrospective data from the MOVING study (2016-2018). N = 258 patients were recruited. N = 166 participants could be included in the analysis, thereof N = 97 women (58.4%). The mean age was 70.8 years (SD 4.8). At baseline, the participants had a mean wearing time of 5,934.5 minutes (SD = 789.5) per week, which corresponds to about 14 hours daily on average. The overall PA in the intervention group at the 6-months follow up was 2488.8 (95% CI 2358.9-2618.2) minutes and 2408.2 (95% CI 2263.0-2553.4) minutes in the control group. There was no statistically significant interaction effect (time*group) between the intervention and control group for the depending variables. Sensitivity analyses showed significant small positive effects of the interaction time*partnership, F(2, 300) = 3.020, p = 0.05, partial η2 = 0.020. On average, study participants had high levels of PA at baseline and showed a good adherence in wearing the accelerometer. Both is likely due to selection in the convenience study sample. Thus, some ceiling effect reduced the overall intervention effect somewhat. At baseline, the weekly average of PI was 3436.7 minutes, which correspondents to about 8.2 hours per day and about 57% of participants' daily waking time. The average level of PI could be slightly decreased in both study groups. DRKS00010410, 17 May 2017.
Highlights
There is strong evidence, that physical activity (PA) promotes healthy aging and that both lack of PA and a high level of physical inactivity (PI) are crucial risk factors for global mortality and several non-communicable diseases (NCD) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7].PI is defined as “any waking behavior characterized by an energy expenditure 1.5 METs while in a sitting or reclining posture” [8, 9]. 31.1% of the worldwide adult population has a sedentary lifestyle, is insufficiently physically active and does not meet the recommendations for PA from the World Health Organization (WHO) [10]
We examined data from the MOVING intervention study (RCT) for people aged 65 years living in the northeast of Germany
Global demographic changes are associated with a large increase of the number of older people and a simultaneous growth of non-communicable-chronic diseases
Summary
There is strong evidence, that physical activity (PA) promotes healthy aging and that both lack of PA and a high level of physical inactivity (PI) are crucial risk factors for global mortality and several non-communicable diseases (NCD) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7].PI is defined as “any waking behavior characterized by an energy expenditure 1.5 METs (metabolic equivalent of task) while in a sitting or reclining posture” [8, 9]. 31.1% of the worldwide adult population has a sedentary lifestyle, is insufficiently physically active and does not meet the recommendations for PA from the World Health Organization (WHO) [10]. There is strong evidence, that physical activity (PA) promotes healthy aging and that both lack of PA and a high level of physical inactivity (PI) are crucial risk factors for global mortality and several non-communicable diseases (NCD) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Physical inactivity causes 3.2 million deaths per year worldwide. Lack of physical activity (PA) and a high level of physical inactivity (PI) are associated with a higher risk for mortality and responsible for several non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular disease. Higher age is associated with a decrease of PA and an increasing level of PI. Studies have shown that interventions in the elderly have the potential to increase the amount of PA and to decrease the level of PI. Primary outcomes of the study were overall PA and PI after 6 months in the intervention group compared to a control group
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