Unemployed Older Adults’ Social Participation was Associated with More Physical Activity and Less Sedentary Time

Abstract

PURPOSE: Social participation provides health benefits for older adults, but it is not known whether social participation is associated with their being more physically active or less sedentary. We examined these associations in a population-based sample of older Japanese adults. METHODS: A mail survey conducted in 2010 and gathered data from 1146 community-dwelling, non-working older adults (mean age: 70.1 years, 43% men) on social participation, physical activity, sedentary time and socio-demographic characteristics. Median splits were used to categorize social participation, physical activity and sedentary behavior as either ‘higher’ or ‘lower’. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for the associations of higher versus lower social participation with being physical active and having higher sedentary time. Similar analyses were conducted after classifying sedentary behaviors into two distinct types: passive sedentary behaviors (consisting of “television viewing”, “sitting around”, and “listening or talking while sitting”) and mentally-active sedentary behaviors (consisting of “computer use” and “reading books or newspapers”) RESULTS: Those with higher social participation had a significantly greater odds of higher physically activity (OR=2.10, [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.44-3.06] among men; OR=1.93, [1.39-2.68] among women); and, a significantly lower odds of higher sedentary time among men (OR=0.62, [0.42-0.90]), but not among women (OR=0.80, [0.58-1.11]). Those with higher social participation had significantly lower passive sedentary time (OR=0.55, [0.38-0.81] for men; OR=0.72 [0.51-0.99] for women), but this was not the case for mentally-active sedentary time (OR=1.36, [0.91-2.02] for men; OR=1.17 [0.83-1.63] for women). CONCLUSIONS: Promoting social participation among older adults may be effective for increasing their physical activity and reducing sedentary time.