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The Role of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Predicting Daily Pain and Fatigue in Older Adults: a Diary Study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Little attention has been paid to within-person daily associations among light physical activity (PA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and sedentary behavior (SB) with subsequent bodily pain and fatigue. Daily reports of pain and fatigue are less likely to be affected by recall bias and to conflate days of high and low pain/fatigue into one overall score.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine daily within-person associations between pain, fatigue, and physical health and ascertain whether such associations are moderated by individual differences in these variables.

Methods

Participants were 63 community-living older adults (female n = 43, mean age = 70.98 years). Questionnaires measured typical levels of PA, SB, bodily pain, fatigue, and physical health. Subsequently, on a daily basis over a 1-week period, participants’ levels of light PA, MVPA, and SB were measured using accelerometers. Participants completed a questionnaire rating their pain and fatigue at the end of each day.

Results

Multilevel modeling revealed positive within-person associations between daily light PA, daily MVPA, and pain, as well as negative within-person associations between daily SB and pain. For individuals with higher typical levels of fatigue, there was a negative association between daily light PA, MVPA, and fatigue. For individuals with better levels of physical health, there was also a negative association between daily MVPA and fatigue. For those with higher typical levels of fatigue and better levels of physical health, there was a positive association between daily SB and fatigue. No such interaction effects were found between high levels of typical pain and PA or SB.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that efforts to promote daily PA in older adults might be more effective for those who report high typical levels of fatigue and physical health, compared to those who report high levels of daily physical pain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Saengryeol Park BSc & Jet J. C. S. Veldhuijzen van Zanten PhD

  2. School of Psychology & Speech Pathology, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6102, Australia

    Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani PhD & Nikos Ntoumanis PhD

Authors
  1. Saengryeol Park BSc
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  2. Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani PhD
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  3. Jet J. C. S. Veldhuijzen van Zanten PhD
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  4. Nikos Ntoumanis PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nikos Ntoumanis PhD.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Ethical Review Committee at a UK university.

Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards

Saengryeol Park, Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Jet J. C. S. Veldhuijzen van Zanten, and Nikos Ntoumanis declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures, including the informed consent process, were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional/national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Additional information

This research was supported by the National Institute for International Education of South Korea (Grant Number: 2011-43).

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Park, S., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., Veldhuijzen van Zanten, J.J.C.S. et al. The Role of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Predicting Daily Pain and Fatigue in Older Adults: a Diary Study. ann. behav. med. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-017-9921-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-017-9921-1

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