A Comparative Analysis Of Seasonal Variations In Physical Activity Patterns Among Older Adults

PURPOSE: Physical activity patterns in human can vary significantly based on seasonal changes. However, their influence on the daily life cycle of physical activity has not been examined yet. The purpose of this study was to compare the physical activity patterns of older individuals between summer and winter while considering the daily life cycle. METHODS: Twenty-seven community-dwelling older adults participated in this research. In the summer and winter from July 2021 to August 2023, each participant wore both a Polar M430 sports watch and an ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometer from the moment they woke up until they went to bed for seven consecutive days. The Polar M430 was used to measure waking and sleeping times, whereas the ActiGraph wGT3X-BT was utilized to evaluate the vector magnitude and step counts. Furthermore, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) time were evaluated using the criteria developed by of Sasaki et al. (2011). Days when the device was not worn for at least 10 hours or unverified waking and sleeping times were excluded from the analysis. To analyze each day data comprehensively, 24-hour time was divided into 4-hour intervals: early morning: (4:00 am-8:00 am), morning: (8:00 am-12:00 pm), afternoon: (12:00 pm-4:00 pm), evening: (4:00 pm-8:00 pm), night:(8:00 pm-12:00 am). RESULTS: Accepted days for analysis were 180 in summer and 185 in winter. The MVPA time and daily step counts were significantly higher in the summer than in the winter: MVPA time lasted 55.8 ± 41.6 min/d, and the step counts was 8349.0 ± 4214.4 steps. In contrast, during the winter, MVPA time averaged 47.6 ± 40.6 min/d, and daily steps were 7317.4 ± 3934.3 steps. The step counts in the morning and the evening were significantly higher in the summer than in the winter. On the other hand, the step counts and MVPA time in the afternoon were higher in the winter than in the summer. In summer, higher step count was observed in the morning and evening, with decreased activity in the afternoon, due to the increased awareness among older people from heat stroke. Conversely, in winter, physical activity was found to increase in the afternoon rather than in the evening, influenced by the earlier sunset. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlighted distinctive activity patterns between summer and winter among the older adults.