Factors associated with physical activity and sedentary behavior in older adults from six low- and middle-income countries

Rising life expectancy in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), coupled with the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, accentuates the importance of generating information to support public health strategies. With this aim in mind, the purpose of this study was to identify correlates of physical activity and sedentary behavior in LMIC. We analyzed Wave 1 data (collected 2007⁻2010) from the World Health Organization’s longitudinal Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE), which focuses on nationally representative samples of adults aged 50 years and older from six countries (China, n = 13,157; India, n = 6560; Mexico, n = 2301; Russian Federation, n = 3763; South Africa, n = 3836; and Ghana, n = 4305). Associations of physical activity (operationalized as meeting physical activity guidelines of ≥150 min/week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity or not) and sedentary behavior (≥4 h/day versus <4 h/day) with demographic, health and health risk, functional, interpersonal, and environmental factors were assessed using multivariate logistic models. Across the six countries, we found fairly consistent and reasonably strong associations between both physical activity and sedentary behavior and several demographic factors (age and employment, in particular), self-reported health, instrumental activities of daily living, factors relating to socializing, and household location. Correlates of physical activity and sedentary behavior in LMIC appear to be similar to those found in high-income countries.