Disparities In 24-hour Movement Cycles Among Older Women: Findings From The Study Of Women's Health Across The Nation (SWAN)

Components of the 24-h movement cycle (sleep, sedentary, and physical activity behaviors) are associated with health, but less is known about variation in movement cycles. PURPOSE: To examine differences in 24-h movement cycles across sociodemographic and health-related factors from a demographically diverse cohort of older women. METHODS: Data are from 1,297 older adult women (ages: 60-72 y) from SWAN who concurrently wore hip- (wake) and wrist- (sleep) worn accelerometer devices at Visit 15 (2015-17). Evenson vector magnitude cut points classified waking behaviors as sedentary, light intensity physical activity (LPA), or moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA). Sociodemographic and health-related factors included age, race/ethnicity (Black, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese, White), educational attainment, financial strain, body mass index (BMI), self-rated health (poor/fair, good/excellent), body pain (none, mild, moderate/severe), depression symptoms (CES-D ≥ 16), anxiety (GAD ≥5), and co-morbidities (diabetes, heart attack, or stroke). We used compositional data analysis to characterize the 24-h movement cycles and multivariate analysis of variance models to examine the difference in the proportion of the day spent in cycle components by subgroup, controlling for SWAN site, age, race/ethnicity, and BMI. RESULTS: Women (mean age = 65 y, 27% Black, 12% Chinese, 6% Hispanic, 11% Japanese, 45% White) spent 34.6% (8.3 h) in sleep, 31.4% (7.5 h) in sedentary behaviors, 30.5% (7.3 h) in LPA, and 3.5% (50 min) in MVPA. The largest differences in component proportions occurred for MVPA. Black and Hispanic women, those who reported moderate/severe financial strain, current smokers, those with moderate/severe bodily pain or poor self-rated health, and women living with co-morbidities spent 19-34% less time in MVPA relative to the overall mean composition (all p < .001). Women with high depressive and anxiety symptoms spent 10-19% less time in MVPA relative to the overall mean composition (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Differences in the composition of 24-h cycles by sociodemographic and health status in older women were driven by contrasts in proportion of time in MVPA. Characterizing those at higher risk for inadequate physical activity will help inform targeted health promotion strategies. Supported by: National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) and the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) (Grants U01NR004061; U01AG012505, U01AG012535, U01AG012531, U01AG012539, U01AG012546, U01AG012553, U01AG012554, U01AG012495, and U19AG063720).