practical living
Women in their mid-70s should be encouraged to walk up to one hour a week to avoid losing mobility as they enter their late 80s, the authors of new research have said.
The University of Canberra study, to be published in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, looked at whether walking maintained mobility amongst women as they transitioned from their mid-70s to their late 80s.
The authors used 12 years of follow-up data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’ s Health and found that walking up to one hour a week, although less than the recommended amount for older adults, helps maintain mobility amongst older women, including walking ability, ability to walk upstairs and reduced likelihood of needing a mobility aid.
The study states that women who do no walking or very little should be encouraged to walk up to one hour a week, and added that those who smoke, are overweight, have arthritis or who have had a recent fall should also be encouraged to walk an hour a week, to reduce the risk of loss of mobility over time.
Aged Care Insite sits down with study lead Bonnie Field from the Centre for Research and Action in Public Health at the University of Canberra to find out how much walking is ideal and discuss the related barriers and motivators.
ACI: Why did you decide to look at this group of people in particular? Why is it important to look at mobility as people transition from their mid-70s to late 80s and to focus on women in particular? BF: One reason we were interested in women was because they experience high disability as they age, often associated with increased levels of arthritis or osteoporosis. Women also are much more likely to live alone as they age, because they live longer.
In terms of the age range, we found that many studies, particularly on physical activity in older adults, look at those who are 60 to 65. We were interested in looking at a much older range, because health, functional abilities, etc, change dramatically with age. For another part of my PhD, I’ m asking women about that [ decline ]. They will tell you that over every five-year period their functional abilities change dramatically. That supported our reason for doing this work.
This study looked at some of the determinants of walking. What are some of the barriers or motivators at play? We looked at 15 determinants of walking time. These variables were included in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’ s Health. It’ s a study that’ s still ongoing. It started in 1996. We looked at women between 1999 and 2011. The variables we had at our disposal were typical. We were looking at demographic variables, their health status and physical function, such as their number of chronic diseases; and we looked at arthritis separately. We looked at those who’ d had a fall or a fracture in the last 12 months. We also looked at cardiovascular disease risk factors, because increased walking is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. We looked at weight status and smoking status. We also looked at other physical activity. What we weren’ t able to look at was the environmental factors that influence walking. There’ s much research being done in that area, but that information was not available in the study we were examining.
What we found was that most of the 15 variables we included were significant predictors of walking time. [ Some positive indicators included ] higher education and living alone; women who live alone throughout their older age are more likely to walk.
By the time they’ re in their mid to late 80s, about 60 per cent of women are living alone. That’ s a high proportion, versus 40 per cent who were living alone at the start of the study.
Those women who did other physical activity, as well as those who volunteered [ also were more likely to go walking ]. Factors that reduced the likelihood of walking included arthritis, having a fall in the last 12 months, having a higher body mass, and smoking, the proportion of women who smoke in this age group is small.
You found that women in their mid-70s who walked up to one hour a week were less likely to experience loss of mobility in very old age. Was this level of walking common? What did the study reveal about the number of women who were walking up to one hour a week? At the start of the study, those who reported doing no walking was about 36 per cent, just over 1 in 3 women reported doing no walking. The proportion who did some walking was about 50 per cent. By the end of this study, those who reported doing some walking had dropped from 50 per cent in 1999 to about 40 per cent in 2011, but the proportion who did no walking had jumped from about 36 per cent to 60 per cent. That was still a reasonable proportion doing some walking. A surprising number, about 13 per cent, were doing more than 150 minutes of walking a week. This is self-reported walking of any kind, outdoors; for example, walking for exercise or walking to get to and from places such as the bus stop or to the shops, etc.
We were looking at three [ measures ] in terms of walking and mobility. First was a mobility score, which we determined based on responses to five questions that addressed the ability to walk up stairs and a variety of distances. This was just a numerical score.
Next, we looked at [ how many ] reported using a mobility aid. The women were surveyed five times, and this was asked only in the last two. The [ proportion ] that needed a mobility aid increased from about 40 per cent to 50 per cent in just three years.
We also looked at main mode of transport, so whether a woman still drove or relied on other forms of transport. These are women 85 to 90 years of age and about 30 per cent were still driving themselves, whereas others were being driven by other people or using public transport. What we found was that walking just one hour a week – much less than the recommended 150 minutes – was [ related to ] a substantial increase in mobility score over time. [ That amount of walking ] also reduced the risk of needing a mobility aid over time but it had no effect on the [ proportion of ] women who drove. In other words, those who aren’ t walking are probably using a car just as often as those who do walk.
These were interesting results because cars are such a focus of mobility among older people, but our study wanted to shift the focus to walking as a means of mobility. Even short walks – just getting to and from the shop – can maintain mobility, and that’ s associated with maintaining your independence.
Based on the findings, how much walking is ideal? The recommended amount of physical activity, such as walking, is about 150 minutes a week. This is the same for adults or older adults, but [ anything ] is better than nothing. That’ s what we were emphasising, that we found significant [ improvement from any amount of walking ] above those who do none. If you increase your walking to just one hour a week, say three 20-minute sessions, you have an increased likelihood of maintaining your ability to walk upstairs and long distances over time, and you reduce your likelihood of needing a mobility aid. ■
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