Physical activity and psychological well-being among people aged 65 to 84 years.
This report deals with the findings of an epidemiological interview carried out among two representative samples (n = 800 + 800) consisting of persons born in 1904-13 and in 1914-23, and living at home in the year 1988 in the city of Jyväskylä, central Finland. The participation rate was 80% (n = 1244). It appeared that overall involvement in physical exercise decreased with increasing age, especially among the women. About 50% of the subjects carried out regular walking exercise and 40% practised some form of home gynastics which was considered not to be very intensive. About 20% of the subjects were no more physically active than was essential for performing their daily activities. According to log-linear and regression models, there was a significant association between higher prevalence of depression and no regular physical exercise. Self-rated meaningfulness of life and better subjective health were also significantly related to regular and intensive physical exercise. These relationships were more obvious among the younger cohort (65-74 years). The results suggest that involvement in physical exercise may promote positive perceptions of psychological well-being among the elderly. On the other hand, psychological well-being seemed to be an important predictor for staying physically active at advanced ages. These findings are based on a cross-sectional study and therefore leave open the question of direction of causality which will be pursued in a follow-up survey.
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life