Table 1.
Participant characteristics at baseline by physical activity measures, NHATS 2015–2018
| Walking | Vigorous Activities | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | P value | Yes | No | P value | |
| Unweighted, N (weighted %) | 1,516 (70.7) | 763 (29.3) | <0.001 | 981 (50.1) | 1,298 (49.9) | 0.917 |
| Age at interview, mean (SD) | 73.69 (6.8) | 76.64 (7.7) | <0.001 | 72.85 (6.2) | 76.27 (7.7) | <0.001 |
| Sex Female | 749 (47.6) | 430 (52.9) | 0.056 | 414 (42.7) | 765 (55.7) | <0.001 |
| Race and Ethnicity | ||||||
| White, non-Hispanic | 1,103 (81.5) | 544 (82.0) | 0.267 | 769 (85.8) | 878 (77.5) | <0.001 |
| Black, non-Hispanic | 278 (7.0) | 158 (8.0) | 146 (5.6) | 290 (9.0) | ||
| Other a | 43 (3.7) | 13 (2.2) | 25 (3.4) | 31 (3.1) | ||
| Hispanic | 92 (7.8) | 48 (7.9) | 41 (5.2) | 99 (10.4) | ||
| Married | 825 (62.5) | 337 (51.5) | <0.001 | 595 (66.0) | 567 (52.5) | <0.001 |
| Education | ||||||
| < High School | 246 (12.1) | 173 (18.9) | <0.001 | 107 (8.3) | 312 (19.9) | <0.001 |
| High School/GED | 327 (20.5) | 252 (33.0) | 200 (19.1) | 379 (29.2) | ||
| Some College | 391 (27.4) | 202 (28.8) | 269 (29.1) | 324 (26.4) | ||
| ≥Bachelors | 552 (40.1) | 136 (19.3) | 405 (43.4) | 283 (24.5) | ||
| Income quartile | ||||||
| Quartile 1 (Low income) | 273 (13.7) | 196 (22.0) | <0.001 | 119 (9.3) | 350 (23.0) | <0.001 |
| Quartile 2 | 311 (15.6) | 225 (26.7) | 179 (14.8) | 357 (22.9) | ||
| Quartile 3 | 403 (27.5) | 190 (26.1) | 266 (26.0) | 327 (28.2) | ||
| Quartile 4 (High income) | 529 (43.2) | 152 (25.2) | 417 (49.9) | 264 (25.9) | ||
| Anxiety | 54 (3.5) | 54 (7.5) | 0.003 | 33 (3.6) | 75 (5.8) | 0.073 |
| Depressed | 72 (4.2) | 89 (9.7) | <0.001 | 40 (3.5) | 121 (8.2) | <0.001 |
| Arthritis | 580 (33.2) | 353 (42.2) | 0.001 | 362 (32.7) | 571 (39.1) | 0.008 |
| Hip Fracture (since age 50) | 49 (2.5) | 41 (4.5) | 0.056 | 21 (1.9) | 69 (4.3) | 0.004 |
| Counts of other self-reported chronic diseases | ||||||
| 0 | 269 (21.7) | 84 (13.1) | <0.001 | 192 (23.9) | 161 (14.4) | <0.001 |
| 1 – 2 | 873 (58.7) | 419 (56.6) | 575 (58.5) | 717 (57.7) | ||
| 3 + | 374 (19.5) | 260 (30.3) | 214 (17.6) | 420 (27.8) | ||
| Hospital stays in the last 12 months | 212 (12.1) | 153 (19.0) | 0.001 | 113 (9.8) | 252 (18.5) | <0.001 |
| Flare up pain hand/surgery arm or shoulder | 102 (6.6) | 94 (12.3) | <0.001 | 72 (7.3) | 124 (9.2) | 0.136 |
| Received rehab in the last 12 months | 188 (12.1) | 105 (12.7) | 0.695 | 119 (12.3) | 174 (12.3) | 0.989 |
| Functional limitationb (ADL, IADL, mobility) | 311 (17.1) | 271 (30.4) | <0.001 | 171 (15.0) | 411 (27.0) | <0.001 |
| Physical capacity c, mean (SD) | 1.85 (0.3) | 1.55 (0.6) | <0.001 | 1.90 (0.2) | 1.62 (0.5) | <0.001 |
Note: GED, general education development; ADL, activities of daily living; IADL instrumental activities of daily living
Other includes Am Indian/Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander/other specify, non-Hispanic.
Self-care activities (activities of daily living) were defined as eating, bathing, toileting, and dressing; household activities (instrumental activities of daily living) included laundry, grocery shopping, meal preparation, banking or paying bills, and medication tracking; and mobility activities were defined as going outside, moving around inside, and getting out of bed. For each activity, participants were assigned to one of three categories: having no difficulty, having some difficulty but able to perform activity without assistance, or unable to do and requiring assistance. For each category (self-care, household, and mobility), the presence of functional limitation was formulated as a dichotomous variable, with no functional limitation (e.g., no difficulty) coded as ‘no limitation’ and any functional limitation coded as having a ‘limitation.’ An overall value for functional limitation was additionally formulated as a dichotomous variable, with an overall limitation present if the participant had a limitation in any of three categories (ADL, IADL, or mobility).”(Shirazi et al., 2023)
A composite score of physical capacity was created by averaging the scores across the six pairs of tasks: (a) walking 3 and 6 blocks, (b) going up 10 and 20 stairs, (c) carrying 10 and 20 pounds, (d) bending over and kneeling down, (e) reaching overhead and putting a heavy book on a shelf overhead, (f) grasping small objects and opening a sealed jar. The responses for each pair of tasks were scored as (0) unable to do either, (1) able to do the less challenging task but not more challenging, and (2) able to do the more challenging task. The final score was set to missing if all items had missing values. The final score ranges from 0 to 2, with increasing scores indicating better physical capacity.(Ji & Xiang, 2023)