Daily and longitudinal associations of out-of-home time with objectively measured physical activity and sedentary behavior among middle-aged and older adults

This study examined the associations of time spent out of home with physical activity and sedentary behavior among middle-aged and older adults. A diary survey was conducted for 7 days with 157 adults to measure out-of-home time and working status. Time spent in sedentary behavior and levels of physical activity were measured using an accelerometer. After a year, 137 individuals from the original sample participated in a follow-up survey. From the daily analyses of 535 non-working days and 347 working days, multilevel models revealed that on non-working days, more out-of-home time was associated with less sedentary time and higher levels of physical activity at both within- and between-person levels. Longitudinal analyses of non-working days supported these results. However, on working days, similar associations were not revealed by daily or longitudinal analyses. These results suggest that increasing out-of-home time could contribute to increased physical activity and reduced sedentary behavior on non-working days.