Using activity triggered e-diaries to reveal the associations between physical activity and affective states in older adult’s daily living

Abstract

Background: Evidence suggests that elderly show positive affects after participating in an exercise program. However, it is less clear, how physical activities in daily living enhance affective states. This is surprising, as most of elderly’s physical activities are part of their daily living. We used activity-triggered e-diaries to investigate the within-subject effects of physical activity on three dimensions of affective states (valence, energetic arousal, calmness) in everyday life. Methods: Older adults (N = 74) between 50 and 70 years took part in the study during three consecutive days. Physical activity in daily living was objectively assessed with accelerometers. Affects were measured 10 minutes after a study participant surpassed a predefined threshold for activity or inactivity. The participants were prompted by an acoustic signal to assess their momentary affective states on an e-diary. Data were analyzed with hierarchical multilevel analyses. Results: When older individuals were more physically active, they felt more energized (energetic arousal) and agitated (calmness). However, they did not feel better (valence). Interestingly, body mass index (BMI) and valence were associated in a significant cross-level interaction, which demonstrates that BMI was a moderating variable. Lower BMI scores were associated with higher valence affect scores after being physically active. Conclusions: Activities in daily living only partially enhance the elderly’s affective states, because participants feel energized and agitated but not better. Accordingly to the moderating effect of BMI, older people with lower BMI feel better whereas older people with higher BMI did not feel better after being physically active in daily living.