Accelerometer-measured physical activity and sedentary behavior in nonagenarians: Associations with self-reported physical activity, anthropometric, sociodemographic, health and cognitive characteristics

by Sari Aaltonen, Mia Urjansson, Anni Varjonen, Henri Vähä-Ypyä, Paula Iso-Markku, Sara Kaartinen, Tommi Vasankari, Urho M. Kujala, Karri Silventoinen, Jaakko Kaprio, Eero Vuoksimaa

Research on device-based physical activity in the oldest-old adults is scarce. We examined accelerometer-measured physical activity and sedentary behavior in nonagenarians. We also investigated how the accelerometer characteristics associate with nonagenarians’ self-reported physical activity, anthropometric, sociodemographic, health and cognitive characteristics.

Nonagenarians from a population-based cohort study (N = 38, mean age 91.2) used accelerometers during the waking hours for seven days. They also participated in a health survey and cognitive telephone interview. The Wald test and Pearson and polyserial correlations were used to analyze the data.

The participants’ average day consisted of 2931 steps, 11 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and 13.6 hours of sedentary time. Physical activity bouts less than 3 minutes per day and sedentary time bouts of 20–60 minutes per day were the most common. No sex differences were found. Many accelerometer-measured and self-reported physical activity characteristics correlated positively (correlations ≥0.34, p-values Conclusions

Nonagenarians were mostly sedentary and low in physical activity, but individual variability existed. Accelerometer-measured and self-reported physical activity had a good consistency. Education, dizziness and fear of falling were consistently related to accelerometer-measured characteristics in nonagenarians.