Association of physical activity combined with sedentary behavior with dynapenia in older adults

This research aimed to analyze the association of physical activity (PA) level combined with exposure to sedentary behavior (SB) with dynapenia in older people. Epidemiological, cross-sectional study, conducted with 208 older adults in Aiquara, Bahia, Brazil. Habitual PA and SB were quantified using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Based on this information, participants were divided into groups (G): G1) sufficiently active and low SB; G2) sufficiently active and high SB; G3) insufficiently active and low SB; and G4) insufficiently active and high SB. Assessment of dynapenia was performed based on the values of the handgrip strength measured in kilogram-force (kgf) (women: 18.37 kgf; men: 26.75 kgf). Descriptive analysis was conducted using absolute and relative frequencies, mean and standard deviation. For the inferential analysis, Poisson regression was used, with a robust estimator, calculation of Prevalence Ratios (PRs) and their relevant Confidence Intervals (CIs) of 95.0%. It was observed that the mean age of women and men were, respectively, 71.0 ± 6.7 and 72.3 ± 8.1 years and the prevalence of dynapenia observed was about 24.5%. Furthermore, it was found that the insufficiently active older adults with low SB (G3) (PR: 2.28; 95%CI: 1.09-4.76), and those insufficiently active with high SB (G4) (PR: 4, 14; 95%CI: 1.95-8.70), were more likely to experience the assessed outcome. Evidence showed that, among the older adults in Aiquara the prevalence of dynapenia was high in the presence of an insufficient level of PA, especially when combined with greater exposure to SB.