Context of walking and loneliness among community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional study

BMC Geriatrics

Table 1 Characteristics of participants

Variable	Total (N = 171)	Context of walking ^a			P-value ^d
Variable	Total (N = 171)	W0 (n = 42)	W1 (n = 103)	W2 (n = 26)	P-value ^d
Age, years	78.0 ± 5.6	77.6 ± 7.1	78.1 ± 5.3	78.4 ± 4.5	0.81
Women, n (%)	102 (59.6)	28 (66.7)	58 (56.3)	16 (61.5)	0.50
Years of education, years	12.7 ± 2.5	12.5 ± 2.8	12.9 ± 2.5	12.3 ± 2.3	0.60
BMI, kg/m²	23.1 ± 2.8	23.1 ± 3.2	23.1 ± 2.6	23.4 ± 3.0	0.86
Living with someone, n (%)	121 (70.8)	30 (71.4)	68 (71.4)	23 (88.5)	0.08
Social participation ^b, n (%)	107 (62.6)	23 (54.8)	62 (60.2)	22 (84.6)	0.04 ^e
PA excluding walking ^c (METs minute/week)	1372.4 ± 2334.4	870.5 ± 2020.8	1405.0 ± 2356.2	2053.8 ± 2607.4	0.04
Days of walking, day/week	-	-	4.6 ± 1.9	4.5 ± 2.1	0.86
Walking time, minute/day	-	-	65.2 ± 48.9	83.5 ± 58.6	0.06
UCLA loneliness scale, scores	36.0 ± 9.5	38.2 ± 9.2	36.2 ± 9.9	31.9 ± 7.0	0.02 ^e

Data described as n (%) or mean ± standard deviation
Abbreviations: BMI = body mass index; PA = physical activity; UCLA = University of California, Los Angeles
^a Context of walking was classified into three groups: non-walking (W0), walking alone (W1), and walking with someone (W2)
^b Social participation was defined as the number of people who participated at least once a week in any of the social groups or associations
^c PA excluding walking was defined as the sum of moderate and vigorous PA
^d W0, W1, and W2 were compared using ANOVA, Kruskal–Wallis test, and chi-squared test. W1 and W2 were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test
^e Significant difference between W0 and W2 using post hoc Steel-Dwass test

ISSN: 1471-2318