Factors associated with sedentary lifestyle among older people with the ability to walk, living in nursing homes

Introduction: Due to sedentary lifestyle, not only the risk of many chronic diseases and multimorbidity increase, but older people also lose their functional independency earlier. The first step to design effective interventions aiming to decrease sedentary lifestyle is to explore the factors associated with sedentary lifestyle. Aim: Our aims were to describe the type and duration of sitting activities and to examine the factors associated with sedentary lifestyle, namely 1) sociodemographic factors (i.e., age, gender, education level, marital status); 2) medical factors (chronic diseases, use ofwalking aids); 3) lifestyle factors (i.e., duration of institutionalization, smoking status) among older people living in nursing homes providing long-term care. Method: Data collected with questionnaire from 248 participants were analysed using logistic regression. Results: There were 159 participants (64.1%) in total who were characterized by sedentary lifestyle. In our sample, the sedentary lifestyle was associated with the smoking status, the number of age-related chronic diseases, the duration of institutionalization, and the use of walking aids. Conclusion: The older people who have more chronic diseases, who are smokers and were institutionalized earlier are more likely to be characterised by sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, decision-making graduate health-care professionals should preferably focus their efforts on these older people in order to change the sedentary lifestyle by providing information about risk of this lifestyle, and offering programs relevant to older people's interests and functional status.