A Cambridge study of nearly 1,500 adults found a correlation between lower quality of life and less time spent physically active adults over sixty.
The same was true for an increase in the amount of time spent sitting still, such as reading or watching television. According to the researchers, this demonstrates the significance of promoting active aging.
It is known that engaging in moderate-intensity, heart-pumping physical activity lowers one’s risk of a number of diseases, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Adults should engage in 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity or 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week, according to the NHS. As standing has distinct health benefits for older adults, it is also recommended that they break up prolonged periods of sedentaryness with light activity whenever physically possible.
Using accelerometers, a group led by researchers at the University of Cambridge examined the activity levels of 1,433 participants over the age of 60. The participants were recruited for the EPIC-Norfolk study, which is part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer.
The team also looked at health-related quality of life, which is a measure of well-being that includes pain, self-care, and anxiety and mood. Based on their responses to a questionnaire, each participant received a score that ranged from 0 (worst quality of life) to 1 (best quality of life). An increased risk of hospitalization, worse outcomes after hospitalization, and early death are associated with lower quality of life scores.
The behavior and quality of life of the participants were monitored for an average of just under six years. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes has published the study’s findings.
Men and women had decreased their daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity by about 24 minutes on average six years after their initial assessment. In parallel, men’s and women’s total daily sedentary time increased by approximately 33 and 38 minutes, respectively.
Those people who accomplished other things moderate-to-overwhelming actual work and invested less energy inactive at their most memorable evaluation had a more excellent of life later on. An hour daily spent more dynamic was related with a 0.02 better of life score.
For each moment daily less of moderate-to-vivacious actual work estimated six years after the principal evaluation, personal satisfaction scores dropped by 0.03. This indicates that a person’s score would have decreased by 0.45 if they had reduced their participation in such activities by 15 minutes per day.
A drop in the score of 0.012 for every minute a day increase in total sedentary time six years after the first measurement was also associated with a decrease in quality of life. This indicates that a person’s score would have decreased by 0.18 if they had spent 15 minutes more per day sitting down.
To put the findings into a clinical context, a 6.9% decrease in the risk of early death and a 4.2% decrease in the risk of hospitalization were previously linked to a 0.1 point increase in quality of life scores.
The following was stated by Dr. Dharani Yerrakalva, who works at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Public Health and Primary Care: Whatever stage of life you’re in, it’s critical to keep yourself active and limit how much time you spend sitting down, breaking it up when you can. This is by all accounts especially significant in later life, when it can prompt possibly huge enhancements to your personal satisfaction and your physical and mental prosperity.”
They say they can be reasonably sure that they have demonstrated a causal link because the team measured physical activity and sedentary behavior at different times. For instance, they found that people’s quality of life improved when they were more physically active.
Dr. Yerrakalva continued, Our physical behaviors can be improved in a number of ways to maintain a higher quality of life. For instance, we know that more physical activity improves muscle strength, which enables older adults to continue taking care of themselves, and that it reduces pain in common conditions like osteoarthritis. Similarly, being more active and less sedentary can improve depression and anxiety, which are linked to quality of life.
