Neighborhood environmental characteristics and sedentary behavior in later life: the EpiFloripa Study

Abstract

Little is known about the relationship between perceived environmental characteristics and sedentary behavior (SB) using accelerometry in older adults. e aim of this study was to investigate the association between perceived neighborhood environmental characteristics and SB using accelerometry in 423 older adults from Florianopolis, Brazil. e time spent in SB was measured by an accelerometer (Actigraph-GT3X and GT3X+) for seven days and it was defined as < 100 counts per minute. Neighborhood characteristics were assessed using the 17-item of the A-NEWS scale. Linear regression was used to examine the association between perceived neighborhood environmental characteristics and SB. The results showed that older adults spent about 631.9 minutes/day in SB which corresponds to 66% of their waking time/day. Men who reported “access to shops” (β = -66.87; 95%CI: -113.80; -19.66), “access to services” (β = -65.65; 95%CI: -118.63; -12.61), “access to food shops” (β = -78.38; 95%CI: -123.79; -32.93) and “access to bus stop” (β = -66.69; 95%CI: -110.32; -22.95) spent over one hour less in SB. In women, lower SB was associated to easier “access to clubs and gyms” (β = -24.57; 95%CI: -48.13; -0.89) and “access to open spaces gyms” (β = -31.67 95%CI: -58.80; -4.21). These findings indicate that better access and greater diversity of places in the neighborhood environment could be an important factor to reduce SB in older Brazilian adults.