Customary physical activity and physical health outcomes in later life

Objectives: to explore associations between customary physical activity and three longitudinal outcomes: 12-year all-cause mortality, 12 year disease- specific mortality and 8-year change in general practitioner and personal s ocial service use. Design: longitudinal study. Subjects: 1042 people originally aged 65 and over randomly sampled from gen eral practitioner Lists in Nottingham, UK. Methods: Cox regression survival and logistic regression analyses. Main outcome measures: questionnaire-assessed levels of physical activity; 12-year mortality; reported health and personal social service contacts in month prior to interview. Results: on the basis of factor scores derived from the interview questionn aire, activity levels were graded as high, intermediate or low, with respon dents grouped accordingly Relative to the high activity group, 12-year mort ality was significantly increased in both the intermediate [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1.53; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.10 -2.14; P< 0.05] and low (HR = 1.75; 95% CI = 1.24-2.48; P< 0.005) activity groups for men, and in the low activity group (HR= 1.73; 95% CI= 1.28-2.55; P< 0.001) for wome n. Lower levels of activity were also associated with an increased likeliho od of using health and personal social services 8 years after the initial i nterview, and an increased risk among men of having respiratory disease rec orded as the primary cause of death. AU models were adjusted for age, healt h and smoking status and weight category as measured at baseline. Conclusions: the results are consistent with the conclusion that, among eld erly people, health gain resulting from higher customary physical activity levels can promote a longer and more independent later life.