FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH IMPROVING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN OLDER ASIANS
Background: Regular physical activity has been demonstrated to have many benefits for older adults, such as prevention of cognitive and physiological decline, the promotion of independent functioning, and the decrease of risk of falls and of mortality. The majority of older Asians are inactive during their leisure time. However, less is known about whether older Asians’ personal factors (e.g., age, gender, disability, etc.) affect their adherence to physical activity programs and impact their physical outcome. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the association between factors of age, gender, disability, arthritis, immigration status, and adherence to EF among older Asians in Washington State and whether these factors can predict their physical performance outcome.
Methods:EF is an evidence-based physical activity program for older adults. Lead by trained instructors and offered in community settings, EF is ongoing and offered for one hour, three sessions per week. Participants were Asian older adults who had attended EF in Washington since 2002 and provided demographic data and completed a baseline Chair Stand test. Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) was used to explore whether EF adherence and lower-extremity strength could be explained by demographics (age, gender, disability, arthritis, and immigration status).
Results: The total sample was 549. Participants were, on average, 81 years old (SD = 9.76), mostly female (n=434, 78%) and almost half immigrants (n=221, 40%). Seventeen percent (n=93) reported a disability; of those 14% (n=80) reported arthritis. The MLR for average sessions that attended per month showed that age and immigration status did account for variation in the outcome, R2 = 0.13, F(5, 543) = 15.66, p < .001, R2adjusted= 0.12. A significant interaction between participants’ age and immigration status was found on average sessions: participants who were immigrants attended more EF classes compared to those who were not, yet the differences between immigrants and non-immigrants varied by age. However, none of the predictors (age, gender, disability, arthritis, and immigration status) accounted for the variation in the baseline Chair Stand test.
Implications: Evidence-based physical activity programs need to be disseminated to community-based sites used by Asians who are older and nonimmigrants. Health care providers need to refer this same population to physical activity programs. And research needs to be conducted that tests strategies to recruit and retain this population to physical activity programs.