Older age, unemployment, solo living discourage people from exercising

Socioeconomic status (SES) appears to be an important determinant of physical activity, a recent Japan study has found. People who are unemployed are less likely to engage in exercise, as are those who do not live with their spouse.

Drawing from the prospective cohort study NIPPON DATA2010, the present study included 2,069 adults in whom physical activity was quantified using the Physical Activity Index (PAI), which takes into account exercise intensity and duration. For each 10-year age class and sex, the lowest tertile of PAI was defined as inactivity.

Across the seven age classes, PAI was highest in men aged 30–39 years, with a median of 38.6; in women, PAI peaked in the 40–49-year age group, with a median of 38.0. In general, median PAI decreased with increasing age, such that those in the 80–89-year age group had the lowest median PAI for both men and women (30.8 And 32.9, respectively).

Multiple logistic regression analysis found that participants who were not working were significantly more likely to be physically inactive, a trend that remained true in adult men and women, and in elderly men and women.

Moreover, elderly men who were not living with their spouse were at greater risk of physical inactivity. The same was true for adult women, but not elderly women.

Neither educational attainment nor household expenditure showed significant interactions with physical activity.

“The present study from a nationwide survey of the general Japanese population demonstrated that in the distribution of PAI, the highest median PAI … differed by age and sex,” the researchers said. “These results will contribute to public health interventions which prevent socioeconomic inequalities in physical inactivity.”