Association between chronic diseases, multimorbidity and insufficient physical activity in elderly people in Brazil: a population-based study

: a population-based study

Abstract

The objective was to analyze the association between chronic diseases and multimorbidity with insufficient physical activity in a nationally representative sample of elderly people and to verify whether there is a difference by gender in this relationship. Cross-sectional study with 22,728 participants from the 2019 National Health Survey. Descriptive analyzes and Poisson regression with robust variance were used. A significance level of 5% was adopted. The prevalence of insufficient practice of physical activity was 80.5% (95%CI: 79.6-81.4). Elderly women who had a stroke (adjusted PR= 1.06; 95%CI: 1.02-1.10), arthritis (adjusted PR= 1.04; 95%CI: 1.01-1.05), chronic problem in the spine (adjusted PR= 1.04; 95%CI: 1.01-1.07) and depression (adjusted PR= 1.04; 95%CI: 1.01-1.08) may be more prone to insufficient practice of physical activity. Among men, in the adjusted analysis, having heart disease was associated with a higher prevalence of insufficient physical activity (adjusted PR= 1.06; 95%CI: 1.02-1.11). It is concluded that more than three quarters of the elderly population is insufficiently active in Brazil. There are gender differences in the relationship between chronic diseases and insufficient practice of activities.