Physical activity and sedentary behaviour in a residential aged care facility

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate sedentary behaviour and physical activity levels in independently mobile older adults with and without dementia living in residential aged care.MethodsSedentary behaviour and physical activity were measured in 37 residents of an aged care facility using an accelerometer worn during waking hours for five days.ResultsParticipants with valid accelerometer data (n = 28) spent 85% of the time sedentary, and 12% in low‐intensity, 2% in light‐intensity and 1% in moderate‐to‐vigorous‐intensity physical activity. Over half of sedentary time was accumulated in bouts of greater than 30 minutes. Physical activity at any level of intensity was performed in bouts of less than 10 minutes.ConclusionResidents were highly sedentary and inactive. In particular, the short duration of each bout of activity amongst lengthy periods of sedentary behaviour was a substantial finding. The study suggests the need to develop innovative ways of breaking up sedentary behaviour in residential aged care.

Application of Activity Trackers among Nursing Home Residents—A Pilot and Feasibility Study on Physical Activity Behavior, Usage Behavior, Acceptance, Usability and Motivational Impact

“…Our nursing home residents spent, on average, more than two and a half hours sitting or lying down without interruptions (21.5% of their waking time) and more than nine hours, or 77.2%, of their waking time sedentary. These findings are similar to or even higher than results of other studies, which examined sedentary behavior under free living conditions in older adults (74.5%, 65%, and 66% of wear time) [ 59 , 63 , 64 ], and also similar to or a bit lower than studies which examined sedentary behavior of nursing home residents (79% and 85% of wear time) [ 18 , 65 ]. The small discrepancies might be due to differences in (1) facility-organized activities, (2) regional differences of the examined nursing homes, (3) physical limitations of the residents, or (4) the devices that the activity was measured with.…”

“…Recently, a few studies examined PA patterns in ambulatory or long-term care settings, and if so, only for a short period of time. Research showed that persons in need of care spend more than 80% of their waking time lying down or sitting [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Buckinx and colleagues revealed that this population walks, on average, less than 1700 steps per day [ 20 ].…”

“…For also assessing PA in nursing home residents, activity trackers might be a feasible objective device as they are, for example, easy to use and inexpensive [ 28 , 29 ]. Despite these positive findings, such devices are rarely used in inpatient care facilities, like nursing homes, and so far, only a few studies have addressed the application of activity trackers in long-term care facilities by investigating (1) the relationship between physical frailty and daily PA [ 20 ], (2) the relationship between PA and sedentary behavior [ 18 , 19 ], (3) the accuracy of used activity trackers [ 21 ], and (4) the ease of use and toleration of the used activity trackers [ 30 ].…”

Effect of a Comprehensive Health Care Program on Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose, Body Composition, and Depression in Older Adults Living Alone: A Quasi-Experimental Pretest–Posttest Study

“…Moreover, the blood glucose levels in the control group were significantly higher than those in the experimental group after the intervention. In related studies [8,10,[17][18][19][20], older adults that participated in a physical activity program showed physical function improvement, compared with older adults that did not participate.…”

Stand-Biased Desk Intervention on Sleep Quality of High School Students: A Pilot Study Using Tri-Axial Accelerometery

“…As the prevalence of obesity has increased rapidly worldwide [1], a sedentary lifestyle, one of the major causes of obesity and overweight, also has increased [2]. The amount of sedentary behavior during waking hours is especially high for office workers and students [3].…”