Motives for physical activity in older men and women: A twin study using accelerometer‐measured physical activity

Abstract

Motives for physical activity may vary considerably by age, sex, and the level of physical activity. We aimed to examine motives for physical activity in older men and women with different physical activity levels as well as whether genetic and/or environmental factors explain those motives. Finnish twins (mean age 72.9 years, 262 full twin pairs) self‐reported their motives for physical activity. Time spent on moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity was monitored using a hip‐worn accelerometer. Comparisons between the different physical activity groups of older twins (n = 764‐791/motive dimension) were analyzed using the Wald test, and effect sizes were calculated as Cohen's d. Quantitative genetic modeling was used to estimate genetic and environmental contributions. For both sexes, the most frequently reported motives for physical activity were physical fitness, health maintenance, and psychological well‐being. Conforming to others’ expectations was more important for men than for women (P < .001, Cohen's d = 0.38), while appearance (P = .001 Cohen's d = −0.24) and psychological well‐being (P = .02, Cohen's d = −0.17) were highlighted by women. Most of the motive dimensions differed significantly between the physically active and inactive individuals. It was estimated that 5%‐42% of the variation in motives was contributed by genetic factors and 58%‐95% by environmental factors. The result that environmental factors contribute in a great deal to motives indicates that interventions to motivate physically inactive older individuals to be physically active can be successful. However, personalized interventions are needed because sex and the level of physical activity were found to be associated with older individuals’ motives for physical activity.

Participation Motives of Sport and Exercise Maintainers: Influences of Age and Gender

“…Importance of Fitness/Health increased with age. This may be explained by the increasing health problems and concerns of elder people [6,14,31]. These results support previous research, highlighting similarities as well as differences according to gender, age and sport type.…”

“…Female sport maintainers gave more importance to motives that relate to Activation, Distraction/Catharsis, Health/Fitness and Body/Appearance than men. This finding relates to other studies showing women to give more importance to psychological benefits, physical condition and physical appearance [6,26,27]. Notably, the male and the female group valued the subjective importance of some factors (e.g., Competition/Performance) differently; but both groups gave the highest scores to the factors Activation, Fitness/Health and Aesthetics.…”

“…Studies reported differences according to gender and age [25,26]. Women give more importance to psychological benefits [6,27], physical condition [26] and physical appearance [6,26,27]. Zervou et al [27] showed that potential improvements in physical appearance were central for female adults to participate in exercise programmes.…”

“…Conversely, Cash et al [28] indicated that appearance/weight management motives relate to negative body image independent of body mass; and Ednie and Stibor [29] showed that appearance (but not weight management) motive was a negative predictor for exercise participation in females. Men give more importance to competition/ego [25][26][27]30], mastery [26] and others' expectations [6,26]. Age correlates positively with the importance of health-related motives and inversely with the importance of competition-related motives [25][26][27]30] and affiliation [26].…”

“…The current study focuses on those who are physically active in order to learn from their successful maintenance of sport and exercise behaviour. Participation motives have been shown to be one important factor to understand physical activity behaviour [6][7][8]. Recommending the type of sport/exercise fitting to the individual motive profile may promote maintenance of physical activity; cf.…”