Gerontology & Geriatric Research

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHINESE OLDER ADULTS WITH DIABETES

2^nd International Conference on Aging & Gerontology

June 26-27, 2017 San Diego, CA, USA

Sang-I Lin, Hui-Ping Cheng, Chong-Shan Wang & Ming-Shin Lin

National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Gerontol Geriatr Res

Abstract:

Diabetes is a major health concern for older people in developing countries. Physical inactivity is common in older adults with diabetes and could not affect only the control of the disease, but also quality of life (QOL). This study examined the association between the level of physical activity and QOL in older Chinese with diabetes. A total of 201 community-dwelling older adults (age 60-89, mean=70 years) who had confirmed diagnosis of diabetes participated in this study. The Taiwan version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to record and categorize (vigorous or moderate) the level of physical activity. Subjects who had at least 150 minutes of moderate or at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity were classified as active, while the rest as inactive. The WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version was used to measure QOL. It was found that subjects in the different activity groups did not differ in age, gender, body mass index or duration of diabetes. About 67% of the subjects were inactive, but did not differ from their active counterparts in the four domains of QOL (p=0.07-0.228). Subjects with at least 10 min of moderate activity (47%) also did not differ from those without (p=0.186-0.800). For subjects (12%) with at least 10 min vigorous activity, their physical (p=0.004), psychological (p=0.011) and environment (p=0.008) QOL were significantly better than those who did not. The results showed that vigorous but not moderate activity was associated with better quality of life.