Effects Of A Walking-based Physical Activity Program On Sleep In Korean Older Adults

The prevalence of sleep disorders increases dramatically from the age of 65 years and approximately 40-70% of older adults suffer from sleep disorders such as insomnia and poor sleep quality. Physical activity is a representative non-pharmacological treatment for sleep disorders. However, it is unclear whether a low-intensity walking-based physical activity program (WPAP) can improve sleep disorders in older adults. PURPOSE: To examine the effects of a low-intensity WPAP on sleep symptoms in older adults. METHODS: 60 subjects (72.8±5.3) were recruited using local advertisements from senior welfare centers in Seoul, South Korea. All subjects provided a written informed consent. We designed a walking-based physical activity program consisting of warm-up (5 min), senior gymnastics based on walking movements (10 min), square-stepping exercise (40 min), and cool-down (5 min). The intervention group (n=30) attended the WPAP for 60 minutes once a week for 12 weeks and the control group (n=30) did not receive any intervention. Sleep disorder was measured using the Korean version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-K). PSQI-K measures seven components: Quality, Latency, Duration, Efficiency, Disturbance, Use of Sleeping Medication, and Daytime Function. The total PSQI-K score was determined by summing the seven components. Unpaired t-tests were used to test the homogeneity of baseline sleep symptoms between the intervention and control groups. Paired t-tests were used to evaluate differences in sleep symptoms between pretest and posttest. IBM SPSS Statistics 28 for Windows was used for the statistical analysis, and the level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: There are no significant differences between any of the baseline sleep symptoms between the two groups (unpaired t-tests). After the intervention, PSQI-K total score and the latency score in the intervention group showed significant difference between before and after the intervention (paired t-tests, p=0.007, p=0.032, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that a low-intensity WPAP enhances some aspects of sleep disorder in older adults. Our findings suggest that a low-intensity physical activity program offered in senior welfare centers can improve the health and well-being of older adults.