Correlates of sport participation among community-dwelling elderly people in Germany: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

The aims of this study were (1) to analyze the sport participation in a cohort of community-dwelling elderly people in Germany and (2) to evaluate associations between sport participation, sociodemographic factors, cardiovascular risk factors, and health status. In a monitored prospective cohort study (getABI), 6,880 unselected patients ≥65 years have been followed up by 344 general practitioners beginning in 2001. As part of the 5-year follow-up telephone interview, a sample of 1,376 participants was interviewed on sport participation. The association between participation in at least one sporting activity ("sporty" yes/no) during the past week (cycling) or month (other sports) and the following parameters was analyzed by logistic regression: age, sex, immigration background, education, waist circumference, smoking, selfreported health, history of vascular events, diabetes mellitus, lipometabolic disorder, and arterial hypertension. Analysis of activities (n=1,304; median age 76 (70-94) years; 55.1% women) showed that 27.6% of participants rode a bicycle during the previous week. During the previous month, 24.9% of participants did gymnastics or strength training, and 16.5% swam. Of all participants, 53.8% were sporty. Multivariate analysis revealed several independent factors to be associated with being sporty (p<0.05): younger age, male sex, higher education, nonsmoking, better self-reported health, and not being diagnosed with diabetes. Immigration background, waist circumference, history of vascular events, lipometabolic disorder, and hypertension did not show a statistically significant association (p≥0.05) with sport participation. Summing up, the most frequently performed sporting activities were cycling, gymnastics or strength training, and swimming. Sport participation was associated with, for example, age and sex.

Sport participation of the elderly—the role of gender, age, and social class

“…Especially educational level influences sport participation. These findings are in accordance with participation profiles of elderly people, i.e., a significant correlation between social class and sport participation of the elderly is confirmed [4,16,34,42].…”

“…Representative for Chemnitz and Braunschweig getABI-German epidemiological trial on Ankle Brachial Index; 2001,2006 Hinrichs et al [34] Cohort study/follow-up N=1,376 (follow-up)…”

“…Recent studies document a more ambiguous picture of gender differences in general and specifically with respect to the elderly. While some studies identify no significant gender difference in participation rates in sports of the elderly [4,18,30,32,57], other studies show a significantly higher participation rate either of men in some of the age groups 50+ [7,34,45] or of women 50+ [11,50]. There is only one common feature concerning gender differences across these diverse studies: within the highest age groups (80+), women are strongly underrepresented.…”

Subjective well-being in European countries—on the age-specific impact of physical activity

“…[36], there is no study that investigates whether the magnitude of this impact is age-specific, although, it is also well known that sport participation is strongly influenced by age [5,12,24,33]. Consequently, this paper seeks to make a unique contribution to the existing literature by exploring the age-specific effects of sports participation on SWB for a broad cross-section of 19 European countries.…”

“…Rasciute and Downward in Kyklos 63(2):256-270, 2010]. More specifically, despite sports participation and engagement in physical activity having a strong age-specific profile (Breuer et al in Eur Rev Aging Phys Act 7:61-70, 2010;Hinrichs et al in Eur J Sport Soc 6(1):49-57, 2010; Mechling and Netz in European Rev Aging Physical Activity 6(2):89-97, 2009), there is no study that investigates whether the magnitude of this impact is age-specific. Consequently, this paper seeks to make a unique contribution to the existing literature by exploring the age-specific effects of physical activity on SWB for a broad crosssection of 19 European countries.…”