Socialization and Its Relation to Physical Activity in Older Adults

Previous research has shown that physical activity can have a positive impact on cognitive performance. Additionally, physical activity can be “socially contagious”, and individuals can be influenced to participate in physical activity when members of their social group are physically active. Moreover, the vast majority of previous research studies have used questionnaires to assess the amount of physical activity that participants take part in. However, given that these questionnaires are subjective and based solely on memory, this method can be unreliable especially in older adults, and studies that use actigraphy monitors to assess physical activity objectively have shown more reliability in results. Due to these gaps in research the current research study examines moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in older adults using current actigraphy technology, in conjunction with levels of socialization. Participants’ levels of socialization were measured using a 5-item Likert scale questionnaire and they took home an actigraphy monitor that they wore around their waist to measure their levels of physical activity. It was hypothesized that higher levels of socialization would correlate with higher amounts of MVPA. Results show that there was no correlation between socialization and MPVA. However, individuals that were more social tended to be less sedentary which partially supports our original hypothesis