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Predictors of physical activity in community-dwelling elderly white women

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe patterns of physical activity and to determine factors associated with engaging in regular exercise, especially walking, in elderly white women.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of 9,442 independently living elderly white women aged 65 years and over participating in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We studied the association between lifestyle habits, social factors, health status and self-reported physical activity (assessed by modified Paffenbarger scale) during the past twelve months. Walking was the most common form of exercise: 4,837 (51%) women reported doing so a mean of 12 (SD=10) blocks per day, 3.9 (SD=2.9) times per week. Other common activities were gardening (35%), swimming (16%), and bicycling (13%). Less than a third of women reported engaging in medium- or high-intensity exercise in the past year. In a multivariate age-adjusted analysis, factors independently (P<.01) associated with walking for exercise included greater than high school education (52% vs 48%), history of physical activity for exercise at ages 30 years (51% vs 46%) and 50 years (51% vs 45%), and stronger social network (51% vs 47%). Women who were current smokers, obese, or depressed were less likely to take walks for exercise. Marital status, self-reported arthritis, current estrogen use, and a history of falls in the past year were not independently associated with taking walks for exercise.

CONCLUSIONS: In this healthy cohort, walking for exercise is associated with other positive health behaviors. Given the mounting evidence about the health benefits of walking, and since many of these community dwelling women can and do walk for exercise, but rarely engage in other common prescribed physical activities, clinicians might best focus their efforts on encouraging walking.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California-San Francisco, 1701 Divisadero, Box 1732, 94115, San Francisco, CA

    Judith M. E. Walsh MD, MPH

  2. the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, USA

    Judith M. E. Walsh MD, MPH & Warren S. Browner MD, MPH

  3. the Department of Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center of San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif

    Warren S. Browner MD, MPH

  4. the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Oakland, Calif

    Alice Rogot Pressman MA

  5. the Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa.

    Jane A. Cauley DrPH

Authors
  1. Judith M. E. Walsh MD, MPH
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  2. Alice Rogot Pressman MA
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  3. Jane A. Cauley DrPH
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  4. Warren S. Browner MD, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Judith M. E. Walsh MD, MPH.

Additional information

Dr. Walsh was a fellow in General Internal Medicine at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco when this work was done.

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Walsh, J.M.E., Pressman, A.R., Cauley, J.A. et al. Predictors of physical activity in community-dwelling elderly white women. J GEN INTERN MED 16, 721–727 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2001.00506.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2001.00506.x

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