Abstract
Physical activity may be influenced by one’s physical environment, including day length and weather. Studies of physical activity, day length, and weather have primarily used self-reported activity, broad meteorological categorization, and limited geographic regions. We aim to examine the association of day length and physical activity in a large cohort of older women, covering a wide geographic range. Participants (N = 16,741; mean (SD) age = 72.0 (SD = 5.7) years) were drawn from the Women’s Health Study and lived throughout the United States. Physical activity was assessed by accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X+) between 2011 and 2015. Day length and weather information were obtained by matching weather stations to the participants’ location using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration databases. Women who experienced day lengths greater than 14 hours had 5.5% more steps, 9.4% more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and 1.6% less sedentary behavior, compared to women who experienced day lengths less than 10 hours, after adjusting for age, accelerometer wear, temperature, and precipitation. Day length is associated with physical activity and sedentary behavior in older women, and needs to be considered in programs promoting physical activity as well as in the analyses of accelerometer data covering wide geographic regions.
Highlights
Physical inactivity has been estimated to cause 5.3 million excess deaths annually, approximately the same as does smoking[1]
The few studies that have investigated the relation between meteorological variables and physical activity using objective measures like accelerometry have been conducted in small geographic regions and with small or medium sample sizes[12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]
Association between physical activity and day length, we aimed to examine the association between day length and objective measures of physical activity from a large cohort of older women across a wide geographic region
Summary
Physical inactivity has been estimated to cause 5.3 million excess deaths annually, approximately the same as does smoking[1]. Examining day-to-day objective measures of both physical activity, and meteorological factors across a large region will allow more precise understanding of the relationships between day length, temperature, and precipitation with physical activity levels. The Women’s Health Study, a longitudinal cohort of older women, provides one of the first opportunities to examine objectively measured physical activity in a large sample across a wide geographic area. Day length can be accounted for in statistical analyses when sampling over a large geographic region as well as taken into consideration when designing physical activity intervention studies. Association between physical activity and day length, we aimed to examine the association between day length and objective measures of physical activity from a large cohort of older women across a wide geographic region
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