Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life among Older Persons attending Primary Health Care Centres in Southwestern Nigeria

Resum

Objective: Physical inactivity, responsible for 6% of

deaths, has been identified by WHO as the fourth major

risk factor for mortality. Inadequate physical activity

is responsible for poor health-related quality (HRQoL)

of life and 3-5% of all major non-communicable

diseases (NCDs). This study aimed at determining level

of physical activity, HRQoL and prevalence of chronic

NCDs among older persons attending selected primary

healthcare centers in Lagos Nigeria.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study done among

266 older persons in PHC centers in Lagos, Nigeria.

Multi-stage random sampling was used to select

participants. Consecutive sampling recruitment was

used to select 266 respondents. Data was collected

using structured interviewer-administered questionnaire

and analysis was done using SPSS version 20. The

level of significance was p < 0.05.

Results: The level of physical activity was low with

overall PASE score of 46.5. Most of the respondents

were unable to achieve the physical activity guidelines

as 68.0%, 92.5% and 98.5% of respondents did not

engage in moderate, vigorous and muscle-strengthening

activities in past 7 days respectively. Majority of the

respondents (84.6%) had good HRQoL. Most

respondents who had poor HRQoL had lower PASE

scores and this was statistically significant (p < 0.001).

Respondents had diabetes, stroke or hypertension with

a prevalence rate of 13.9%, 7.1% and 62.8%

respectively.

Conclusion: The level of physical activity was low

but most of the respondents had good HRQoL.

However, most of respondents who had poor HRQoL

had low PASE scores. The prevalent chronic NCDs

were hypertension, diabetes and stroke.