JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

24-hour movement behaviors: physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and sleep, are crucial components affecting older adults’ health. Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines for older adults were launched in 2020, emphasizing the combination role of these three movement behaviors in promoting older adults’ health. However, research on the prevalence and correlates of guideline adherence and its associations with health outcomes is limited, especially among Chinese older adults.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and correlates of meeting 24-hour movement among Chinese older adults. Furthermore, this study aimed to examine the associations of guideline adherence with older adults’ physical and mental health outcomes.

Methods:

Using a stratified cluster random sampling approach, a total of 4,562 older adults (67.68±5.03 years; 55.8% female) were recruited from the latest provincial health surveillance of Hubei China from 25-Jul to 19-Nov 2020. Measures included demographics, movement behaviors (PA, SB and sleep), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-hip ratio (WHR), percentage body fat (PBF), systolic and diastolic pressure, physical fitness, depression, and loneliness. Generalized linear mixed models were employed to examine the associations between variables using SPSS 28.0.

Results:

Only 1.8% of participants met all three movement guidelines, while 32.1%, 3.4% and 66.4% met the individual behavioral guideline for PA, SB and sleep, respectively. Participants, who were older, female and lived in the municipalities with lower economic levels, were less likely to meet all three movement guidelines. Meeting more movement guidelines was associated with greater physical and mental health outcomes among older adults, except systolic and diastolic pressures.

Conclusions:

This is the first study to investigate the adherence of 24-hour movement guidelines among Chinese older adults regarding the prevalence, correlates, and associations with physical and mental health outcomes. The findings emphasize the urgent need of promoting healthy movement behaviors among Chinese older adults. Future interventions to improve the older adults’ physical and mental health should involve enhancing their overall movement behaviors and considering the demographic differences.