The Relationship between Outdoor Activity and Health in Older Adults Using GPS

Jacqueline Kerr, Simon Marshall, Suneeta Godbole, Suvi Neukam, Katie Crist, Kari Wasilenko, Shahrokh Golshan and David Buchner
Additional contact information
Jacqueline Kerr: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Simon Marshall: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Suneeta Godbole: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Suvi Neukam: University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, 11 Hills Beach Rd, Biddeford, ME 04005, USA
Katie Crist: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Kari Wasilenko: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Shahrokh Golshan: Department of Psychiatry, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
David Buchner: Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA

IJERPH, 2012, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-11

Abstract: Physical activity (PA) provides health benefits in older adults. Research suggests that exposure to nature and time spent outdoors may also have effects on health. Older adults are the least active segment of our population, and are likely to spend less time outdoors than other age groups. The relationship between time spent in PA, outdoor time, and various health outcomes was assessed for 117 older adults living in retirement communities. Participants wore an accelerometer and GPS device for 7 days. They also completed assessments of physical, cognitive, and emotional functioning. Analyses of variance were employed with a main and interaction effect tested for ±30 min PA and outdoor time. Significant differences were found for those who spent >30 min in PA or outdoors for depressive symptoms, fear of falling, and self-reported functioning. Time to complete a 400 m walk was significantly different by PA time only. QoL and cognitive functioning scores were not significantly different. The interactions were also not significant. This study is one of the first to demonstrate the feasibility of using accelerometer and GPS data concurrently to assess PA location in older adults. Future analyses will shed light on potential causal relationships and could inform guidelines for outdoor activity.

Keywords: physical activity; older adults; outdoor time; accelerometry; Global Positioning System (GPS); physical functioning; cognitive functioning; health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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