An investigation of seasonal variation in leisure-time physical activity in persons with spinal cord injury.

STUDY DESIGN

Secondary cross-sectional analyses of a cohort.

OBJECTIVES

To examine seasonal variation in total moderate-to-vigorous leisure-time physical activity (MV-LTPA), exercise and sport participation in a cohort of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).

SETTING

Community (Ontario, Canada).

METHODS

Participants with SCI (n=695) completed telephone interviews regarding their involvement in MV-LTPA along with social cognitive predictors of MV-LTPA. Logistic regression was used to predict the impact of season on participation in MV-LTPA, exercise and sport. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine seasonal variation in min per day of MV-LTPA in the active sub-cohort (n=342) with a specific focus on exercise (for example, wheeling), and sport (for example, sledge hockey).

RESULTS

Logistic regressions revealed that season did not predict whether participants engaged in MV-LTPA, exercise or sport. Linear regressions revealed that individuals in the active sub-cohort who completed the questionnaire during the winter reported engaging in less MV-LTPA than those who were interviewed in summer (βsummer=0.14, P<0.05). This pattern was observed for exercise (βsummer=0.16, P<0.05; R2 change=0.018) but not for sport (βsummer=0.076, P=0.68; R2 change=0.014).

CONCLUSION

Individuals with SCI report less exercise and total LTPA accrued during the winter months; sport was found to be an exception to this case.