Social networks moderate the association between physical fitness and cognitive function among community-dwelling older adults: a population-based study

Table 1 Respondents’ characteristics and distribution of study variables by levels of physical fitness

	Physical fitness
	Higher levels of physical fitness (≥ 65 steps)	Lower levels of physical fitness (< 65 steps)	Chi-square statistic or t-value	P-value
	n (%) or mean ± standard deviation	n (%) or mean ± standard deviation	Chi-square statistic or t-value	P-value
Sex
Men	599 (56.5)	461 (43.5)	88.82^a	< 0.001^c
Women	419 (36.5)	729 (63.5)
Marital status
Married	762 (50.4)	750 (49.6)	35.56^a	< 0.001^c
Not married	256 (36.8)	440 (63.2)
Employment status
Currently working	256 (51.4)	242 (48.6)	7.58^a	0.006^c
Currently not working	741 (44.4)	928 (55.6)
Living arrangement
Living with others	911 (46.1)	1067 (53.9)	0.02^a	0.893^c
Living alone	107 (46.5)	123 (53.5)
Multimorbidity status
No multimorbidity	527 (47.9)	574 (52.1)	2.74^a	0.098^c
Multimorbidity	491 (44.4)	616 (55.6)
Ethnicity
Malay	570 (41.3)	811 (58.7)	34.96^a	< 0.001^c
Non-Malay	446 (54.3)	376 (45.7)
Cognitive function
No cognitive impairment	752 (50.6)	733 (49.4)	39.64^a	< 0.001^c
Cognitive impairment	255 (36.3)	448 (63.7)
Social networks
No social isolation	578 (48.1)	623 (51.9)	5.33^a	0.021^c
At risk of social isolation	416 (43.2)	548 (56.8)
Age	68.1 ± 5.58	69.5 ± 6.48	−5.88^b	< 0.001^d
Year(s) of education	6.1 ± 4.12	4.4 ± 3.69	10.52^b	< 0.001^d
Household income	1178.9 ± 1064.87	915.8 ± 940.54	5.97^b	< 0.001^d

^aChi-square statistic; ^bt-value; ^cChi-square test; ^dIndependent sample t-test

ISSN: 1471-2318