Although the importance of resting in bed for hospitalized older adults is known, current methods of interpreting physical activity (PA) recommend the use of a broad definition of sedentary behavior (SB) that includes 0–1.5 metabolic equivalents (METs) of sleep (SL) and sitting. We investigated the characteristics of PA by conducting a cross-sectional study of 25 older adults with trunk and lower extremity fractures. The intensity of their PA was interpreted as SL (0–0.9 METs), SB (1–1.5 METs), low-intensity PA (LIPA: 1.6–2.9 METs), and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA: >3.0 METs). We calculated the correlation coefficients to clarify the relationship between each PA intensity level. Our analyses revealed that the PA time (min/day) was accounted for by SB (53.5%), SL (23.2%), LIPA (22.8%), and MVPA (0.5%). We observed negative correlations between SL and SB (r = −0.837) and between SL and LIPA (r = −0.705), and positive correlations between SB and LIPA (r = 0.346) and between LIPA and MVPA (r = 0.429). SL and SB were also found to have different trends in relation to physical function. These results indicate that SL and SB are trade-offs for PA during the day. Separate interpretations of the SL and SB of older hospitalized adults are thus recommended.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.