Diversity of exercising with others and one-year maintenance of exercise behavior and social support among older adults: A longitudinal survey

Kazuhiro Harada, Koji Ota
Purpose:

This study examined whether the influence of exercising with others on one-year maintenance of exercise behavior and social support among older adults differed according to four aspects: exercise consistency, enjoyment of conversation, membership of exercise organization, and type of exercise partner.

Methods:

A web-based two-wave survey with a one-year interval was conducted with older adults registered with a survey company. Among the respondents, 71 individuals who exercised with others during Wave 1 were targeted. Data on exercise consistency (no, yes), enjoyment of conversation (4-point Likert scale), membership of exercise organization (no, yes), type of exercise partner (family, friends, both family and friends), demographic factors (sex, age, educational background, current working status) during Wave 1, and changes in social support and exercise time (minutes per week) from Wave 1 to Wave 2 were analyzed.

Results:

Multiple regression analyses showed that exercise consistency (social support (standardized coefficient [p-value]), -0.12 [0.328]; exercise time, 0.08 [0.528]), enjoyment of conversation (social support, -0.07 [0.605]; exercise time, -0.11 [0.418]), membership of exercise organization (social support, 0.12 [0.325]; exercise time, -0.11 [0.372]), and type of exercise partner (social support, 0.10 to 0.18 [0.160 to 0.417]; exercise time, -0.07 to -0.03 [0.615 to 0.830]) did not significantly predict changes in exercise time and social support.

Conclusion(s):

The influence of exercising with others on the one-year maintenance of exercise behavior and social support did not differ by exercise consistency, enjoyment of conversation, membership of exercise organization, or type of exercise partner.

Implications:

Providing support in creating exercise opportunities at a consistent time, encouraging people to join exercise organizations, or facilitating conversation during exercise may have a limited influence on promoting maintenance of exercise behavior and improving social support among older adults. Future studies should focus on identifying the diverse influences of exercise with others on the maintenance of exercise behavior based on aspects beyond the four aspects focused on in this study.

Funding acknowledgements:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17H04757, JP19H01755, JP20K21758.
Keywords:
Healthy Aging
Exercise
Social Support
Primary topic:
Health promotion and wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Second topic:
Older people
Did this work require ethics approval?:
Yes
Name the institution and ethics committee that approved your work:
Human Ethics Committee of Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University
Provide the ethics approval number:
483-2
Has any of this material been/due to be published or presented at another national or international conference prior to the World Physiotherapy Congress 2025?:
Yes

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