Suarez Jethro Raphael, Blount Amber, Lafontant Kworweinski, Park Joon-Hyuk, Xie Rui, Lighthall Nichole, Thiamwong Ladda
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States.
College of Nursing, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States.
Interact J Med Res. 2025 May 1;14:e63280. doi: 10.2196/63280.
Older adults engage in increased amounts of sedentary behavior (SB), which can result in a significant decline in muscle function and overall health. An understanding of the motivational driving factors that lead older adults to engage in SB can help to create effective intervention programs.
This study aimed to determine the association between prevention and promotion focus with SB in older adults, as well as compare these associations with two factors (ie, age and BMI) that are commonly known to have an association with SB among older adults.
A cross-sectional analysis was conducted among 93 community-dwelling older adults with a mean age of 74.98 (SD 6.68) years. Prevention and promotion focus were both assessed using the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire. Correlation analysis was performed to determine the associations between prevention focus, promotion focus, age, and BMI with SB. Anderson-Darling tests confirmed nonnormal data distributions for all factors (except age); therefore, Spearman rank correlation was used to determine correlations between factors. Comparative analysis of significant correlations was performed using Fisher Z transformation.
Prevention focus had the greatest statistically significant correlation with SB (ρ=0.296; P=.004), followed by BMI (ρ=0.204; P=.049). Both age (ρ=0.116; P=.27) and promotion focus (ρ=0.002; P=.99) had statistically insignificant correlations with SB, indicating no associations. The correlation between prevention focus and SB did not significantly differ from the correlation between BMI and SB (P=.51).
Prevention focus was found to have a weak, but significant positive association with SB in older adults. Although age and BMI have been found to have an association with SB in previous literature, age was not associated with SB in this study, while BMI had a significant but relatively weaker association with SB than that with prevention focus. However, the association found between BMI and SB did not statistically differ from the association found between prevention focus and SB. These findings suggest that older adults could be driven to engage in increased amounts of SB due to having a dominant prevention focus, which revolves around thoughts of safety and avoiding negative consequences. The recognition of this association has the potential to aid in developing intervention programs that could promote shifting from prevention to promotion focus, thereby reducing SB in older adults.
老年人久坐行为（SB）增多，这可能导致肌肉功能和整体健康状况显著下降。了解促使老年人产生久坐行为的动机驱动因素有助于制定有效的干预方案。
本研究旨在确定预防焦点和促进焦点与老年人久坐行为之间的关联，并将这些关联与已知的与老年人久坐行为相关的两个因素（即年龄和体重指数）进行比较。
对93名社区居住的老年人进行了横断面分析，他们的平均年龄为74.98（标准差6.68）岁。预防焦点和促进焦点均使用调节焦点问卷进行评估。进行相关性分析以确定预防焦点、促进焦点、年龄和体重指数与久坐行为之间的关联。安德森-达林检验证实所有因素（年龄除外）的数据分布均非正态；因此，使用斯皮尔曼等级相关性来确定因素之间的相关性。使用费舍尔Z变换对显著相关性进行比较分析。
预防焦点与久坐行为的统计学相关性最强（ρ=0.296；P=0.004），其次是体重指数（ρ=0.204；P=0.049）。年龄（ρ=0.116；P=0.27）和促进焦点（ρ=0.002；P=0.99）与久坐行为的统计学相关性均不显著，表明无关联。预防焦点与久坐行为之间的相关性与体重指数与久坐行为之间的相关性无显著差异（P=0.51）。
研究发现预防焦点与老年人久坐行为之间存在微弱但显著的正相关。尽管先前的文献发现年龄和体重指数与久坐行为有关，但本研究中年龄与久坐行为无关，而体重指数与久坐行为的关联虽显著但相对弱于与预防焦点的关联。然而，体重指数与久坐行为之间的关联在统计学上与预防焦点与久坐行为之间的关联并无差异。这些发现表明，由于占主导地位的预防焦点，围绕安全和避免负面后果的想法，老年人可能会增加久坐行为。认识到这种关联有可能有助于制定干预方案，促进从预防焦点向促进焦点的转变，从而减少老年人的久坐行为。
