Variation In Daily Physical Activity During An Exercise Intervention Period In Older Adult Japanese

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that healthy middle-aged adults spend less time on physical activity during the weekend than during the weekday. However, there are few reports about this topic that include older Japanese adults. PURPOSE: To examine variation in the amount of daily physical activity during an exercise intervention for older Japanese adults. Variations between the sexes were also examined in this study. METHODS: Forty-one healthy adults (female: n = 24; male: n = 17; age: 73.2 ± 7.3 years) participated in an exercise intervention (UMIN000020678). The exercise program was conducted once a week for 3 months. Daily physical activity was measured using three-axis accelerometers (OMRON: HJA-750C). Physical activity data were categorized into two types: locomotive or household activity. For each day of the week, we compared locomotive and household activity between male and female participants using one-way ANOVA. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: For all participants, physical activity amounts for each day of the week (Monday-Sunday) was 21.7-23.0 Mets[BULLET OPERATOR]h/day. There were no significant (P < 0.05) differences among the days of the week. The average total amount of daily physical activity through all 7 days of the week was higher for female subjects (24.2 ± 4.5 Mets[BULLET OPERATOR]h/day) than for male participants (20.0 ± 3.9 Mets[BULLET OPERATOR]h/day). The average amount of locomotive activity was higher for male participants (5.42 ± 1.81 Mets[BULLET OPERATOR]h/day) than for female participants (4.8 ± 2.0 Mets[BULLET OPERATOR]h/day). However, the average amount of household activity was higher for female participants (19.3 ± 3.7 Mets[BULLET OPERATOR]h/day) than for male participants (14.6 ± 3.5 Mets[BULLET OPERATOR]h/day). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that there is no significant variation in daily physical activity amounts in older Japanese adults during our exercise intervention. Furthermore, female participants in this intervention had higher total amounts of daily physical activity because of higher household physical activity amounnts, even though male participants had higher locomotor activity.