The association of major patterns of physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleeping with mortality in older adults

ABSTRACT

Objective: To identify major patterns of physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB) and sleeping (all self-reported), and their association with long-term mortality.

Methods: Cohort of 2,851 individuals aged ≥ 60 from Spain. Mortality was ascertain from 2003 up to July 2013. Patterns of PA, SB and sleeping were identified by factor analysis.

Results: During follow-up, 1,145 deaths occurred. The first pattern, named “sedentary and non-active pattern”, was characterized by long sleeping or lying time, and not doing even light PA (household chores or walking). The second pattern was named “active and non-sedentary pattern”, and was characterized long time devoted to vigorous activities, long walking time, and short seating time. Compared to those in the first quartile of the “sedentary and non-active pattern”, those in the highest quartile showed a 71% higher mortality (HR: 1.71; 95%CI: 1.42–2.07; p-trend:<0.001); it corresponds to being 6-year older. By contrast, being in the highest versus the lowest quartile of the “active and non-sedentary pattern” was associated with a 32% lower mortality (HR: 0.68: 0.57–0.82; p-trend:<0.001); it corresponds to being 4-year younger.

Conclusion: The “sedentary and non-active” pattern had a large impact on mortality. The “active and non-sedentary” pattern showed an opposite and slightly lower association.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical activity
• sedentary behavior
• sleep
• activity patterns
• mortality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Data collection was funded by the following grants: FIS PI12/1166, PI13/0288, PI16/01512, PI16/01460 and PI16/00609 and (State Secretary of R+D and FEDER/FSE), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness DEP2013-47786-R grant (FEDER/FSE), the FRAILOMIC Initiative (European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7-HEALTH-2012-Proposal no. 305483-2), the ATHLOS Project (European Union H2020-Project ID: 635316) and the SALAMANDER Project (European Union PCIN:2016-145). RFP-T was supported by the National Government of Ecuador through the National Institution of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation-SENESCYT. The study funders had no role in the study design or in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. The authors have sole responsibility for the manuscript content.