Objective measurements of daily physical activity patterns and sedentary behaviour in older adults: Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study

Background: objectively measured population physical activity (PA) data from older persons is lacking. The aim of this study was to describe free-living PA patterns and sedentary behaviours in Icelandic older men and women using accelerometer. Methods: from April 2009 to June 2010, 579 AGESII-study participants aged 73-98 years wore an accelerometer (Actigraph GT3X) at the right hip for one complete week in the free-living settings. Results: in all subjects, sedentary time was the largest component of the total wear time, 75%, followed by low-light PA, 21%. Moderate-vigorous PA (MVPA) was <1%. Men had slightly higher average total PA (counts x day(-1)) than women. The women spent more time in low-light PA but less time in sedentary PA and MVPA compared with men (P < 0.001). In persons <75 years of age, 60% of men and 34% of women had at least one bout >= 10 min of MVPA, which decreased with age, with only 25% of men and 9% of women 85 years and older reaching this. Conclusion: sedentary time is high in this Icelandic cohort, which has high life-expectancy and is living north of 60 northern latitude.