Physical Activity versus Selected Health Behaviors, Subjective Physical and Psychological Health and Multimorbidity in a Large Cohort of Polish Seniors during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Results of the National Test for Poles’ Health )

Agnieszka Szychowska (), Anna Zimny-Zając, Elżbieta Dziankowska-Zaborszczyk, Tomasz Grodzicki, Wojciech Drygas and Tomasz Zdrojewski
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Agnieszka Szychowska: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical University of Łódź, Żeligowskiego St. 7/9, 90-752 Łódź, Poland
Anna Zimny-Zając: Medonet, Ringier Axel Springer Poland, Domaniewska St. 49, 02-672 Warsaw, Poland
Elżbieta Dziankowska-Zaborszczyk: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical University of Łódź, Żeligowskiego St. 7/9, 90-752 Łódź, Poland
Tomasz Grodzicki: Department of Internal Medicine and Gerontology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 2 Jakubowskiego St., 31-501 Kraków, Poland
Wojciech Drygas: Department of Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, National Institute of Cardiology, Alpejska St. 42, 04-628 Warsaw, Poland
Tomasz Zdrojewski: Department of Preventive Medicine and Education, Medical University of Gdańsk, Dębinki 7, 80-211 Gdańsk, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: National Test for Poles’ Health is an online study conducted on a large group of Polish Internet users. For the purpose of this study, 64,732 subjects (48.8% female) over 65 years old were included. Subjects provided answers on the level of physical activity (PA) they engage in, prevalence of non-communicable diseases (obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression, cancer) and subjective physical and psychological health. Additionally, their Body Mass Index (BMI) and prevalence of multimorbidity was assessed. We found that older people who engage in at least 2 h of physical activity/week had significantly lower prevalence of hypertension, obesity and heart diseases than those who engaged in 1–1.5 h/week or less than 1 h/week. Multimorbidity was present in 33.2% of subjects from the most active group and 52.6% of the least active ones. Subjective physical and psychological health was rated as “very good” by 26.6% and 41.2%, respectively, by subjects from the most active group. Only 9.1% of the least active subjects rated their physical health as “very good” and only 27.4% rated their psychological health as such. Regular physical activity may be a helpful tool in combating the reduced well-being of older people affected by the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, over 65% of respondents claimed to engage in less than 1 h of PA a week or less.

Keywords: healthy aging; aging; physical activity; exercise; lifestyle; health behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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