Changes in Physical Activity Involvement and Attitude to Physical Activity in a 16-Year Follow-Up Study among the Elderly

Table 3

The importance of physical activity among men and women aged 65–74 years at baseline and in 8- and 16-year follow-up studies, (%, 𝑃).

		Follow-up groups
Importance of physical activity	Baseline 1988	8-year follow-up			16-year follow-up
		1988	1996		1988	1996	2004
Men	𝑛=232	𝑛=139	𝑛=139	McNemar test^a, 𝑃	𝑛=58	𝑛=58	𝑛=58	Cochran Q-test^a, 𝑃
Very important	69.0	70.5	66.9	,575	75.9	75.9	63.8	,163
Somewhat important	27.7	28.1	27.3		24.1	22.4	32.8
Don’t know	0.9	0.7	4.3		0.0	1.7	0.0
Not very important	0.4	0.7	1.4		0.0	0.0	3.4
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0		100.0	100.0	100.0
Women	𝑛=379	𝑛=247	𝑛=247		𝑛=102	𝑛=102	𝑛=102
Very important	67.3	69.2	56.7	,008	73.5	57.8	58.8	,002
Somewhat important	31.7	30.0	38.5		25.5	42.2	39.2
Don’t know	0.4	0.4	3.6		1.0	0.0	2.0
Not very important	0.8	0.4	1.2		0.0	0.0	0.0
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0		100.0	100.0	100.0

^aThe importance of physical activity is divided into two categories (1 = very important 2 = somewhat important, don’t know, and not very important) because of the few number of responses in some categories.