Taking Up and Terminating Leisure-Time Physical Activity over the Life Course: The Role of Life Events in the Familial and Occupational Life Domains

Abstract

Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) is associated with various health-promoting effects. However, little is known about the relationship between life events and changes in LTPA over the life course, especially when multiple life events occur simultaneously. Therefore, this study examines taking up and terminating LTPA associated with life events in the familial and occupational life domains over 16 years of 16–76-year-old Swiss inhabitants (n = 1857) in a retrospective longitudinal cohort design, using a validated telephone survey and multilevel discrete-time event-history analyses. The results show that taking up LTPA was more likely when ending a relationship and retiring and less likely when becoming a parent; terminating LTPA was more likely when ending a job, starting vocational training after 30 years, a relationship ended for men, and becoming a mother with increasing age. If experiencing multiple life events simultaneously, the greater the number of life events, the more likely persons aged 45–70 years were to take up LTPA and, conversely, the more likely persons aged 15–44 years to terminate LTPA. The relationship between life events and changes in LTPA over the life course was often age dependent, especially when experiencing multiple life events simultaneously. The findings should be considered when promoting LTPA.

Ways into physical (in)activity: The role of critical life events and transitions in the reconstructions of young adults

“…This is in line with previous considerations that different life domains might compete for temporal resources as life events conflate and thus lead to a termination of leisure-time PA [ 22 ].…”

“…When it came to becoming a parent, the few mothers and one father from our study indicated that they reduced or even abandoned their sport activities, which mirrors previous research findings [ 20 , 22 ]. In this regard, Sandra pointed out how the use of her time came down to what she considered important:…”

“…In addition, various critical life events and transitions may occur at the same time, simultaneously to other concurrent developments (e.g., puberty), or in short succession and at different subjective ‘intensities’. However, whether and to which extent this leads to the described underlying dynamics and thus changes in daily PA or sport and exercise might depend on the timing and the interdependencies between related life domains and how they compete for resources [ 22 ].…”

The role of leisure-time physical activity in youth for lifelong activity—a latent profile analysis with retrospective life course data

“…Considering this method is not the most valid with a tendency to overestimate physical activity (Ainsworth & Levy, 2004 ), efforts were made to gather the most reliable and valid data possible (e.g. reliability test, see Lenze et al., 2021 for further information). Likewise, the frequency and intensity of LTPA were not captured due to the inaccuracy of measuring them in retrospective studies (Ropponen, Levälahti, Simonen, Videman, & Battié, 2001 ); rather, the regular practice of LTPA in terms of years was captured.…”

“…LTPA is understood as physical activities including exercise, sport and unstructured recreation and excludes domestic, occupational, and commuting physical activity (Khan et al., 2012 ; see Lenze et al., 2021 for a detailed description). In this article, the term youth relates to the first 20 years of one’s life.…”