Exercising alone versus with others and associations with subjective health status in older Japanese: The JAGES Cohort Study

Abstract

Although exercising with others may have extra health benefits compared to exercising alone, few studies have examined the differences. We sought to examine whether the association of regular exercise to subjective health status differs according to whether people exercise alone and/or with others, adjusting for frequency of exercise. The study was based on the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) Cohort Study data. Participants were 21,684 subjects aged 65 or older. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the association. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for poor self-rated health were significantly lower for people who exercised compared to non-exercisers. In analyses restricted to regular exercisers the ORs for poor health were 0.69 (95% confidence intervals: 0.60–0.79) for individuals exercising alone more often than with others, 0.74 (0.64–0.84) for people who were equally likely to exercise alone as with others, 0.57 (0.43–0.75) for individuals exercising with others more frequently than alone, and 0.79 (0.64–0.97) for individuals only exercising with others compared to individuals only exercising alone. Although exercising alone and exercising with others both seem to have health benefits, increased frequency of exercise with others has important health benefits regardless of the total frequency of exercise.

Frequency and pattern of exercise and depression after two years in older Japanese adults: the JAGES longitudinal study

“…It should be noted that there was a very high ratio of individuals who were living with others and of individuals receiving emotional support (about 90% for each). Similar ratios were found in other large-scale studies that we conducted on older Japanese adults 23 , 39 . This indicates that the population in the present study does not differ greatly from the trends for older adults without functional disabilities in Japan as a whole.…”

“…The odds ratio for Ewo (2+/wk) was 0.40 (0.24–0.68), but it was 0.74 (0.43–1.26) for Ea-only (2+/wk), showing a weaker relationship. Previous studies indicated that, compared with only exercising alone, exercising with others lowers the prevalence of poor self-rated health 23 and the risk of poor mental health 35 , difficulties in activities of daily living 36 , and functional disability 33 . The results of the present study indicate that exercising with others may have a similar effect on depression.…”

“…The reference for total frequency of exercise was non-exercisers. Based on previous studies 11 , 15 , 23 , 33 , we adjusted for age, sex, city, annual equivalized income, educational attainment, household composition, work status, BMI, self-reported medical condition, smoking, alcohol consumption, and emotional support at baseline. The reference for pattern of exercise at baseline was non-exercisers.…”

“…All variables were set as dummy variables. Based on a previous study 23 , a “missing” category was used in the analysis to account for missing values in response to questions. This method, called the indicator method, is widely used by epidemiologists for handling missing data 34 .…”

“…However, to our knowledge, no studies have examined the relationships between depression and exercising with others, also taking the effects of exercising alone into consideration. A cross-sectional study showed a significantly lower prevalence of poor self-rated health among older adults who exercise with others, even sometimes, compared to those who only exercise alone 23 . While a similar relationship may exist for depression as well, such a relationship has not yet been examined.…”