Seniors who practice regular physical activity have a better quality of life than those who are sedentary.
- The more seniors are sedentary, the more their quality of life decreases.
- This increases the risk of hospitalization, difficulty recovering and death.
- Walking, gardening, and biking are some of the activities that allow older characters to move more.
Being active is good for your health, whatever your age! I’World Health Organization recommends that people over 65 devote at least 150 minutes per week to moderate-intensity endurance activity, or 75 minutes to vigorous-intensity activity. The WHO recalls that physical inactivity increases the risk of death and disease. In recent research, researchers show that it also contributes to the deterioration of the quality of life. Their work is published in Health and Quality of Life Outcomes.
How to assess the level of physical activity of seniors?
This research team was made up of researchers from the University of Cambridge. She examined the physical activity levels of 1,433 participants aged 60 and over with accelerometers. At the same time, the scientists collected various information to learn more about their quality of life, such as their level of pain, their potential hospitalizations or their mood. These data allowed the researchers to develop a quality of life scale, ranging from 0 to 1.”Lower quality of life scores are linked to an increased risk of hospitalization, poorer recovery after it and a higher risk of death., say the authors. On average, participants were followed for six years.
Sedentary lifestyle or physical activity: what consequences on quality of life?
Analysis of the information collected shows that one hour of additional physical activity per day was associated with an increase of 0.02 in the quality of life score. “For every minute per day less moderate to vigorous physical activity compared to the first year of assessment, quality of life scores fell by 0.03, observe the researchers. This means that an individual who spent 15 minutes less per day on such an activity saw their score drop by 0.45When they analyzed the effects of sedentary behavior on quality of life, the authors made the same observation: the more time seniors spent doing sedentary activities, the more their quality of life was degraded.
In general, the scientists noted an increase in the sedentary lifestyle of the participants over the years. “On average, six years after their first assessment, men and women were engaging in about 24 fewer minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per daythey note. At the same time, total sedentary time increased by an average of about 33 minutes per day for men and about 38 minutes per day for women..”
Seniors: how to move more?
For the authors, the conclusions of this study are clear: we must encourage the elderly to remain active. This therefore requires a reduction in the time spent sitting, watching television or reading, and more time spent moving. They suggest five activities that are easy to do: daily brisk walking, ideally for twenty minutes, gardening, bike rides, dancing or playing tennis. Improving quality of life can be an abstract notion, Dr. Dharani Yerrakalva, lead author of this study, explains: “increased physical activity reduces pain in common disorders like osteoarthritis, (…) improves muscle strength” And “depression and anxiety (…) can be reduced by being more active and less sedentary”. According to theWHOphysical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of premature death worldwide.
