Physical activity and quality of life in women aged 60 or older: associated factors

PURPOSE: to evaluate the level of physical activity, quality of life and associated factors in women aged 60 or older. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was conducted on 271 women who go to a Leisure Center and women attended at a menopause ambulatory in Campinas (SP). The women were invited to take part in the research, carried out through interviews. The instruments used were the version 8 of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) modified for the elderly population in order to evaluate their physical activity, and the World Health Organization Questionnaire of Quality of Life specific for this group (WHOQOL-OLD) to evaluate their quality of life. IPAQ results were assessed using tertiles. The association between the WHOQOL-OLD and the IPAQ results and subject characteristics was assessed by the Student's t test, Mann-Whitney test and multiple analyses. RESULTS: the average age of women was 67.4 +/- 5.3 years. Among these women, 33% were classified as being less active. Analysis of each physical activity domain showed that 60.8% of the time was spent in sitting activities (1,701.6 +/- 986.1 minutes/ week). Multiple analyses indicated that attending a leisure center in Campinas (SP) and being 70 years old or older increased the chances of engaging in moderate-intensity or vigorous-intensity physical activity by 11.4 and 2.8 times, respectively. The average quality of life score was 66.9 +/- 11.7. The highest value was observed in the domain related to sensory abilities (72.0 +/- 18.8) and the lowest value was related to autonomy (60.3 +/- 16.2). Linear regression showed that a good self-perception of health increased the quality of life score by 7.3 points, the use of a bigger amount of medication decreased it by 4.4 points and the performance of moderate or vigorous physical exercise increased the score by 4.8 points. CONCLUSION: women spend prolonged periods of time in sitting activities. The importance of engaging in moderate/ vigorous-intensity physical activity is evident for obtaining a good quality of life.