A Preliminary Investigation to Explore the Effects of Daytime Physical Activity Patterns on Health-Related QOL in Healthy Community-Dwelling Elderly Subjects

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if different lifestyles of healthy elderly subjects would exert some influence on their daytime physical activity patterns and health-related QOL. Sixty-nine elders were categorized into age-gender, marital status, and body mass index (BMI)-matched groups by lifestyle; 12 males living alone (MA), 20 males living with spouse (MS), 16 females living alone (FA), and 21 females living with spouse (FS). Daytime physical activity (DPA) was recorded with the actigraph: a wrist-worn device. Health-related QOL scales consisted of Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Life Satisfaction Index-Z (LSI), and Visual Analogue Scale of Happiness.Among the four lifestyles, statistical analysis revealed a significant difference in SDS and LSI (both, p < 0.05), and DPA (p < 0.01). Trends in these parameters characteristically indicated that (1) the greatest SDS and the lowest others were observed in MA, compared with FA and (2) greater SDS and DPA, and lower LSI, were shown in FS than MS. The current findings demonstrate that lifestyle of the elderly subjects residing in urban wards might appreciably exercise influences on QOL and physical activity. The preliminary study suggests that more attention to daily physical activity and lifestyle of healthy community-dwelling elderly subjects may not be less efficacious than conventional care in rehabilitative intervention, but the characteristics of elderly handicapped subjects remain unclear.