The Association between Difficulty Seeing and Physical Activity among 17,777 Adults Residing in Spain

Guillermo F. López-Sánchez, Igor Grabovac, Damiano Pizzol, Lin Yang and Lee Smith
Additional contact information
Guillermo F. López-Sánchez: Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Murcia, 30720 Murcia, Spain
Igor Grabovac: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Damiano Pizzol: Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, Jerusalem 9135400, Israel
Lin Yang: Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, AB T2S 3C3, Canada
Lee Smith: Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-8

Abstract: This is the first representative population-based study exploring the association between difficulty seeing (i.e., low vision) and physical activity in Spain. Cross-sectional data from the Spanish National Health Survey 2017 were analysed ( n = 17,777, ≥15 years; 52% females). Difficulty seeing was self-reported in response to the question ‘‘Do you have difficulty seeing?” The international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) short form was used to measure level of physical activity. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess associations overall and by age group (15–49, 50–64, ≥65 years). Covariates included in the analysis were sex, age, education, marital status, use of glasses or contact lenses, cataracts, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, smoking and alcohol consumption. The overall prevalence of difficulty seeing was 11%, and the overall prevalence of participating in less than 600 metabolic equivalent (MET)-min/week of physical activity was 30.2%. After adjustment for covariates, difficulty seeing was associated with significantly higher odds of performing less than 600 MET-min/week of physical activity with the odds ratio (OR) = 1.222 (95% confidence interval = 1.099–1.357). Considering the impact on health and quality of life due to reduced physical activity in people with difficulty seeing, at least 600 MET-min/week of physical activity should be promoted to this population.

Keywords: vision problems; diabetic eye disease; physical activity; public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4267/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4267/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4267-:d:283109

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().