Tsoli, Stergiani;
Fancourt, Daisy;
Sullivan, Alice;
Hamer, Mark;
Ploubidis, George B;
Kawachi, Ichiro;
(2024)
Life-course social participation and physical activity in midlife: longitudinal associations in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70).
European Journal of Epidemiology
10.1007/s10654-024-01107-7.
(In press).
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Abstract
A hypothesized benefit of social participation is that it encourages people to be more physically active. However, limited evidence exists on the association between social participation over the life-course and physical activity in midlife. We sought to apply a life-course framework to examine the association of social participation and device measured physical activity in midlife in the UK. We used the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study (BCS70), which includes all people born in Britain during a single week in 1970. Social participation was assessed at ages 16, 30, 34 and 42. Physical activity was measured by accelerometery at age 46, as mean daily step count and time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The associations of social participation and physical activity were tested using two different life-course models: the sensitive period model and the accumulation model. Individuals with medium and high participation compared to no social participation over their life-course had higher mean daily step count and MVPA in midlife, supporting the accumulation model. In the sensitive period model, only those that actively participated at age 42 had higher mean daily steps and MVPA compared to those who did not participate. Our study provides empirical evidence on the importance of sustaining social participation at all ages over the life-course rather than at a particular timepoint of someone’s life. If our findings reflect causal effects, interventions to promote social participation throughout the life-course could be an avenue to promote physical activity in middle life.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Life-course social participation and physical activity in midlife: longitudinal associations in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10654-024-01107-7 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10654-024-01107-7 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Social participation; Physical activity; Life course models; BCS70; Birth cohorts |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10189326 |
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