Contexts of sedentary time and physical activity among ageing workers and recent retirees: cross-sectional GPS and accelerometer study

Objectives We examined sedentary time and physical activity in different contexts among ageing workers, between their workdays and days off, and recent retirees, between their weekdays and weekend days.Design Cross-sectional study.Setting Finnish Retirement and Aging study and Enhancing physical activity and healthy ageing among recent retirees—Randomised controlled in-home physical activity trial.Participants 137 workers (544 measurement days) and 53 retirees (323 days), who provided data for at least 1 workday/weekday and 1 day off/weekend day.Primary and secondary outcome measures Physical activity behaviour was measured with a combined Global Positioning System and accelerometer device (SenseDoc V.2.0), providing information on sedentary time, light physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) by locations (home or non-home) and trips (active travel, ie, speed <20 km/hour and passive travel, ie, speed ≥20 km/hour).Results Workers accumulated more sedentary time and physical activity at non-home locations than at home on workdays, while the opposite was confirmed for days off (p<0.01). Workers accrued more MVPA on days off than on workdays (34 vs 28 min, p<0.05), of which 9 min on workdays and 14 min on days off was accrued during active travel. Retirees’ physical activity behaviour did not differ between weekdays and weekend days (p>0.05). Regardless of the day, retirees accumulated 33 min of daily MVPA, of which 14 min was accrued during active travel.Conclusions Workers accumulated more MVPA on days off than on workdays, and their activity behaviour varied between workdays and days off at different locations. Our results showed that a large proportion of the MVPA was accumulated during travel at slower speeds, which suggests that active travel could be a feasible way to increase MVPA among older adults.Trial registration number NCT03320746