Gender differences in perceptions of the convenience of outdoor activity among elderly people with a physical disability

Abstract

Objective: To clarify the relationships among health-related quality of life, social factors, behavioral factors and the self-reported convenience of outdoor activity among older Chinese people with a physical disability. Gender differences were studied.Method: A cross-sectional study of 1216 community-dwelling persons over or equal to 60 with a physical disability from Chinese Xiamen’s Xiang’an District between May and December 2019. The theory of planned behavior was applied to generate gender-specific structural equation models predicting convenience perceptions. The standardized coefficients explained the contribution of the variance.Results: The final structural models demonstrated good fit. Convenience of outdoor activity for both women and men was directly impacted by their physical functioning (βwoman = 0.641, βman = 0.675, pboth ≤ 0.01) and intention of participation in community physical activities (βwoman = 0.134, βman = 0.302, pboth ≤ 0.01) , and indirectly by social and economic factors, pain, and role emotions. Positive mental health was more influential for women, while men were more influenced by social norms in the pathway.Conclusions: Both gender models demonstrated good fit in predicting self-reported convenience of outdoor activity. Interventions targeting health-related quality of life, behavior and social factors could predict perceptions of the convenience of outdoor activities. Gender differences need to be considered.