Presentation on physical activity levels of older adults recorded at baseline of the I’DGO TOO ‘DIY Street’ Intervention Study, presented at the World Congress on Active Ageing (WCAA, Glasgow, Scotland), August 2012.

1. Physical Activity Levels of Older Adults at
Baseline of the
I’DGO TOO ‘DIY Street’ Intervention Study
Lynette Robertson, Affonso Zuin, Catharine Ward Thompson

2. Physical Activity Levels at Baseline of the I’DGO TOO
‘DIY Street’ Intervention Study
1. Background
•
•
I’DGO
I’DGO ‘DIY Streets’ Project
2. PA Levels at Baseline
•
•
•
•
•
•
Research questions
Analysis
Results
Summary
Conclusions
Further work

3. Background

4. I’DGO
• Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors
– Access outdoors & older people’s QoL
• Research consortium project
– Universities of Warwick (WISE), Salford
(SURFACE), and OPENspace Research Centre
– Led by Prof Catharine Ward Thompson and
managed by OPENspace
• Funded by
• KT EQUAL Knowledge Exchange

5. I’DGO TOO
• Second phase of I’DGO, focusing
on specific aspects of
placemaking which had not been
tested for age-friendliness
• Projects:
– Tactile paving design, siting and
laying (Salford)
– Residential outdoor space – do
gardens matter? (Warwick)
– Pedestrian friendly
neighbourhoods – Home Zones
and ‘DIY Streets’ (OPENspace)

6. Shared Spaces: Home Zones and ‘DIY Streets’
• Home Zone (from Netherlands,
‘woonerf’) – residential streets
where pedestrians and vehicles
share on equal terms
• Slower traffic speeds – quality of
life takes precedence over ease
of traffic movement
• Residents are encouraged to use
streets in different ways e.g.
social activities, play

7. I’DGO TOO ‘DIY Streets’ Study: Research Questions
Do shared space projects such
as Home Zones or ‘DIY Streets’
result in environments where
older people:
• Go outside more often?
• Spend more time outside in
the local environment?
• Are more active?
• Have better social networks?
• Have a better quality of life?

8. ‘DIY Streets’ Study Design
• Longitudinal environmental
intervention study
– Baseline monitoring 2008-2009
– Post-intervention monitoring
2010-2011
• 9 sites in the UK (8 Sustrans
‘DIY Streets’ and 1 (Edinburgh)
Home Zone), with 9
matching/control sites
• Deprived communities
• Participants: UK residents 65
years +

9. Data Collection
• Structured interviews
– Health (EQ-5D), QoL (CASP-19)
– Perceptions of the physical environment
– Frequency of going outdoors
• Behavioural observations
– Systematically observe activity patterns in streets
• Street audits
– Used to map out the physical features of streets

10. Data Collection: Physical Activity
• Actigraph
Accelerometers
(GT1M)
• Activity diary
• Recorded over 1
week, during
summer (May –
Sept)

11. Physical Activity Levels at Baseline of the
I’DGO ‘DIY Street’ Intervention Study

12. Physical Activity Levels at Baseline of the I’DGO ‘DIY Street’
Intervention Study
Research Questions
1. How many participants were achieving
the recommended physical activity
levels for older adults? (At least 150
minutes (2.5 hours) of moderate intensity
activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more
over 1 week)
2. What types of activities were associated
with the highest levels of physical
activity and when did these activities
take place?
3. Did activity levels vary by age and
gender?

13. Data Analysis
1. Hourly analysis: average activity per time of day for total
sample (n = 304) - mean total minutes of activity for four
activity categories
(i) sedentary (0-99 cpm)
(ii) low-light (100 – 1040 cpm)
(iii) high-light (1041- 1951 cpm)
(iv) moderate to vigorous (>=1952 cpm)
(after Freedson et al, 1998; Buhman et al, 2010; Copland &
Eslinger, 2009)
2. Individual participant analysis (n = 50): how many were
achieving government recommendations?

14. Results

15. Population Sample at Baseline (n = 50)
• Wore accelerometer +
completed an activity
diary
• Gender
– 28 Female (56%)
– 22 Male (44%)
• Age
– Range : 64 – 94 years
– Mean: 74.2 (SD = 7.4)

16. Total Accelerometer and Dairy Days (n = 304)
• Typical monitoring period
7 days (68%)
• Gender:
– 61% Female
– 39% Male
• Age:
– mean = 74.2

17. Average (mean) activity per time of day (n = 304)

18. Daily Mean Activity Intensity (counts/min)
n = 304
Min = 30.5
Max = 942.4
Mean = 233.6
Median = 201.1
SD = 142.2
Gender: sig. diff.
(Mann-Whitney U
p < 0.000); Men 45% >
Women
Age: rs = -.423, p < 0.000

19. Average (mean) activity per time of day (n = 304)

20. Activity Diary Data
Bouts of MVPA (>1952 cpm) occur shortly after participant leaves the house
& shortly before returning, coinciding with walking to and from a bus stop
2500
4
1
1
5
1
1
5
4
2000
Moderate
to vigorous
physical
activity
(MVPA).
1500
Numbers
are
consective
min MVPA
1000
500
0
09:00
09:22
09:44
10:06
10:28
10:50
11:12
11:34
11:56
12:18
12:40
13:02
13:24
13:46
14:08
14:30
14:52
15:14
15:36
15:58
16:20
16:42
17:04
17:26
17:48
18:10
18:32
18:54
19:16
19:38
20:00
20:22
20:44
21:06
21:28
21:50
22:12
22:34
22:56
23:18
23:40
Activity (counts per minute)
3000
Leaves house at 10:00. Goes to
post office by walking and by bus,
and then to the Guild by bus.
Returns home 16:10
Leaves house at
18:05. Goes dancing.
Gets there by
walking and by bus.
Returns home 21:15

21. Activity Diary Data
• Average frequency of going outdoors = once every 2 days
• Most frequent activities:
1. Going for a walk
2. Going to the shops
3. Sitting outdoors
• On average only walking on about 40% of days

22. Physical Activity Guidelines
How many individuals were
achieving the government
recommendation of “at least
150 minutes (2.5 hours) of
moderate intensity activity in
bouts of 10 minutes or more”
over 1 week?

23. Physical Activity Guidelines
How many individuals were achieving the government
recommendation of “at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of
moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or
more” over 1 week?
• Total MVPA (>1952 cpm) of 150 mins more over a week:
– 69% if include participants with < 7 days monitoring but
still achieving >150min (n = 42)
• Bouts of 10 min:
– only 6 participants (14% of sub sample) achieved a bout of
MVPA of 10 mins or more
– none achieved the weekly recommendation - for any
individual the maximum total MVPA, counting bouts > 10 min
only, was 29 mins.

24. Total minutes of Medium-Vigorous Physical Activity
(MVPA) over 1 week*
n = 42
*Includes those with
< 7 days monitoring but
reached >150 mins MVPA
(24 Female, 18 Male)
Min = 21
Max = 905
Mean = 286
Median = 212
SD = 227
Gender: n.s.
Age: rs = -.524, p < 0.00

25. Physical Activity Guidelines
How many individuals were achieving the government
recommendation of “at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of
moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or
more” over 1 week?
• Total MVPA (>1952 cpm) of 150 mins more over a week:
– 69% if include participants with < 7 days monitoring but
still achieving >150min (n = 42)
• Bouts of 10 min:
– only 6 participants (14% of sub-sample) achieved a bout of
MVPA of 10 mins
– none achieved the weekly recommendation - for any
individual the maximum total accumulated MVPA in bouts >
10 min was 29 mins

26. Physical Activity Guidelines
How many individuals were achieving the government
recommendation of “at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of
moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or
more” over 1 week?
• Total MVPA (>1952 cpm) of 150 mins more over a week:
– 69% if include participants with < 7 days monitoring but
still achieving >150min (n = 42)
• Bouts of 10 min:
– only 6 participants (14% of sub-sample) achieved a bout of
MVPA of 10 mins or more
– none achieved the weekly recommendation - for any
individual the maximum total accumulated MVPA in bouts >
10 min was 29 mins

27. Summary
• Average daily activity:
– Most activity took place between 10am and 1pm
– Walking was the most frequent type of activity, followed by
going to the shops
– Getting out of the house is important – longest bouts of more
vigorous activity (MVPA)
• Government recommendations:
– Participants were not achieving the recommended levels of
PA for older adults at baseline of the I’DGO TOO ‘DIY Streets’
environment intervention study

28. Conclusions
• A significant number of older adults living in deprived
communities in the UK are probably not achieving the
recommended levels of physical activity
• Further studies should seek to identify which types of
activities should be targeted in an individual and/or
community intervention, but simply promoting getting
out of the house (for whatever reason) could be key to
increasing older people’s activity levels

29. I’DGO TOO ‘DIY Streets’ PA Levels: Further Work
1. Average activity levels for
different types of activity
2. Differences across sites?
3. Effect of the environment
intervention on PA levels
• Post-intervention
accelerometer + diary n = 22
• Matched cohort n = 17

30. Thank you for your attention
www.idgo.ac.uk
lynette.robertson@ed.ac.uk