Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Physical inactivity is more common in older adults, is associated with social isolation and loneliness and contributes to increased morbidity and mortality. We examined the effect of social restrictions to reduce COVID-19 transmission in the UK (lockdown), on physical activity (PA) levels of older adults and the social predictors of any change.
Design Baseline analysis of a survey-based prospective cohort study.
Setting Adults enrolled in the Cognitive Health in Ageing Register for Investigational and Observational Trials cohort from general practitioner practices in North West London were invited to participate from April to July 2020.
Participants 6219 cognitively healthy adults aged 50–92 years completed the survey.
Main outcome measures Self-reported PA before and after the introduction of lockdown, as measured by metabolic equivalent of task (MET) minutes. Associations of PA with demographic, lifestyle and social factors, mood and frailty.
Results Mean PA was significantly lower following the introduction of lockdown from 3519 to 3185 MET min/week (p<0.001). After adjustment for confounders and prelockdown PA, lower levels of PA after the introduction of lockdown were found in those who were over 85 years old (640 (95% CI 246 to 1034) MET min/week less); were divorced or single (240 (95% CI 120 to 360) MET min/week less); living alone (277 (95% CI 152 to 402) MET min/week less); reported feeling lonely often (306 (95% CI 60 to 552) MET min/week less); and showed symptoms of depression (1007 (95% CI 612 to 1401) MET min/week less) compared with those aged 50–64 years, married, cohabiting and not reporting loneliness or depression, respectively.
Conclusions and implications Markers of social isolation, loneliness and depression were associated with lower PA following the introduction of lockdown in the UK. Targeted interventions to increase PA in these groups should be considered.
- COVID-19
- preventive medicine
- public health
- sports medicine
- geriatric medicine
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. This is an ongoing study, but anonymised data can be provided upon request for the purposes of further data analysis, and can be requested from the data management coordinator, PG: parthenia.giannakopoulou13@imperial.ac.uk.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. This is an ongoing study, but anonymised data can be provided upon request for the purposes of further data analysis, and can be requested from the data management coordinator, PG: parthenia.giannakopoulou13@imperial.ac.uk.
Supplementary materials
Supplementary Data
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Footnotes
DS, TB and CER are joint senior authors.
Twitter @drdavidsalman
Contributors DS, TB and CR conceived the paper, developed the survey materials, carried out the analysis, wrote the paper equally as joint lead authors and are the guarantors. CAdJL, PG, CTU-M and SA-A developed the survey materials, managed the cohort and data set and contributed to the analysis and writing and editing of the paper. AM, LTM and AHM developed the survey materials, supervised and managed the survey collection and analysis, and contributed to the writing and editing of the paper. All authors developed the survey, carried out the analysis and contributed to the development and editing of the paper.
Funding Work towards this article was in part supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Northwest London and Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). DS and TB are supported by NIHR academic clinical fellowships.
Disclaimer The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health and Social Care. Imperial College London is the sponsor for the CCRR study and has no influence on the direction or content of the work.
Competing interests LTM reports research funding from Janssen, Novartis, Merck and Takeda, outside the submitted work.
Patient and public involvement statement Older adult volunteers (60–80 years of age) from various social and cultural backgrounds provided feedback on the survey content. This feedback was incorporated into the survey design.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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