Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines by Walking in Older Adults From Three Middle-Income Countries: A Cross-Sectional Analysis From the International Mobility in Aging Study
in Journal of Aging and Physical ActivityPhysical activity (PA) among older adults is understudied in middle-income countries. The authors examined the associations of factors across levels of the social ecological model (individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community) with older adults meeting guidelines of 150 min of moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA per week through walking in three middle-income countries: Albania (n = 387), Colombia (n = 404), and Brazil (n = 402). Using 2012 International Mobility in Aging Study data, multivariate logistic regression models identified the following significant associations with meeting PA guidelines through walking (a) individual level: depression (odds ratio [OR] = 0.62, 95% confidence interval, CI [0.45, 0.86]), being female (OR = 0.74, 95% CI [0.56, 0.998]), and high relative education (OR = 1.79, 95% CI [1.33, 2.41]) and (b) interpersonal level: high life partner (OR = 1.38, 95% CI [1.04, 1.83]) and friend social ties (OR = 1.39, 95% CI [1.05, 1.83]). While individual and interpersonal variables were associated with meeting PA guidelines, community-level social and environmental variables were not.
Davis, Sentell, and Pirkle are with the Office of Public Health Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI. Fernandes de Souza Barbosa is with the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. Ylli is with the Institute of Public Health of Albania, Tirana, Albania. Curcio is with the Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia.
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