Life Course and Physical Activity of an Aging America

Smoking Predicting Physical Activity in an Aging America

“…The findings for physical activity replicate those found in the literature (22, 23) a drop from the youngest cohorts, a plateau across further birth cohorts, and a profound drop among the earliest cohort (those born before 1926).…”

“…Table 2 shows cross-tabulations of some of the time factors (birth cohort and three broad age categories) with undertaking requisite physical activity and with smoking status. The findings for physical activity replicate those found in the literature (22, 23) a drop from the youngest cohorts, a plateau across further birth cohorts, and a profound drop among the earliest cohort (those born before 1926).…”

“…Cohorts, controlling for the other factors, show an initial decline in physical activity among younger adults, an increase among young boomers over post-boomers, a further increase for pre-boomers over old-boomers, and a large decline for the earliest (oldest) cohort, although there are fewer cohort differences than those previously reported in the literature (22). The current analysis also controlled for the age categories midlife and age 65 or over, which were not controlled for in that prior analysis, and are similar to those found in a later analysis (23). There was a strong trend toward less physical activity by respondent age, controlling for strong increases at midlife and at age 65, as well as controlling for the cohort effects.…”

“…The Life-Course model (19) explains later life as it is affected by earlier lifestyle behavior (20). This is particularly true with regard to birth cohorts (21), which have proved important in predicting involvement in health behaviors (22, 23). The life course also encompasses the life cycle, meaning that cohort must be distinguished from such other temporal concepts as the individual’s age (19, 21).…”