Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2022 Dec 6;77(Suppl 1):S22-S30. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glac108.
Aging is generally accompanied by decreasing physical activity (PA), which is associated with a decline in many health parameters, leading to recommendations for older adults to increase or at least maintain PA.
We determined relationships between social connectedness and decreasing or increasing PA levels during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic among 41 443 participants of the Women's Health Initiative Extension Study. Outcomes of logistic regression models were decreasing PA activity (reference: maintaining or increasing) and increasing PA activity (reference: maintaining or decreasing). The main predictor was social connectedness as a combined variable: not living alone (reference: living alone) and communicating with others outside the home more than once/week (reference: once/week or less). We adjusted for age, race, ethnicity, body mass index, physical function level, and education.
Compared with participants who were not socially connected, socially connected participants had lower odds of decreasing PA (adjusted odds ratio 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.87-0.95). Odds of increasing PA (vs decreasing or maintaining PA) were not significantly different among socially connected and not socially connected participants. Associations between social connectedness and decreasing PA did not significantly differ by age (<85 vs ≥85 years), race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic White vs other races/ethnicity), education (college vs <college), use of technology to stay in touch with others, or Research and Development physical function score (≤75 vs >75).
Social connectedness was associated with lower odds of decreasing PA among older women during the pandemic. These findings could inform the development of future interventions to help older women avoid decreasing PA.
衰老通常伴随着体力活动（PA）的减少，这与许多健康参数的下降有关，导致建议老年人增加或至少保持 PA。
我们确定了在 COVID-19 大流行期间，妇女健康倡议扩展研究的 41443 名参与者中，社交联系与 PA 水平下降或增加之间的关系。逻辑回归模型的结果是 PA 活动减少（参考：保持或增加）和 PA 活动增加（参考：保持或减少）。主要预测因素是社交联系作为一个综合变量：不住独居（参考：独居）和每周与外界交流不止一次（参考：每周一次或更少）。我们调整了年龄、种族、民族、体重指数、身体功能水平和教育程度。
与没有社交联系的参与者相比，有社交联系的参与者减少 PA 的可能性较低（调整后的优势比 0.91，95%置信区间 0.87-0.95）。有社交联系和没有社交联系的参与者之间，增加 PA 的几率（与减少或保持 PA 相比）没有显著差异。社交联系与减少 PA 之间的关联在年龄（<85 岁与≥85 岁）、种族/民族（非西班牙裔白人与其他种族/民族）、教育程度（大学与<大学）、使用技术与他人保持联系或研究与发展身体功能评分（≤75 与>75）方面没有显著差异。
在大流行期间，社交联系与老年女性减少 PA 的几率较低有关。这些发现可以为未来帮助老年女性避免减少 PA 的干预措施的发展提供信息。
