Community-Level Sports Group Participation and Health Behaviors Among Older Non-Participants in a Sports Group: A Multilevel Cross-Sectional Study

This study validates the relationship between community-level sports group participation and the frequency of leaving the house and transtheoretical model stages of behavior change for exercise among older individuals who did not participate in a sports group. We used cross-sectional data from the 2016 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study. The proportion of sports group participants at the community level was calculated using the data from 157,233 older individuals living in 1000 communities. We conducted a multilevel regression analysis to examine the relationship between the proportion of sports group participants and the frequency of leaving the house (1 day/week or less) and the transtheoretical model stages of behavior change for exercise. A statistically significant relationship was observed between a high prevalence of sports group participation and lower risk of homeboundness (odds ratio: 0.94) and high transtheoretical model stages (partial regression coefficient: 0.06) as estimated by 10 percentage points of participation proportion. Older individuals, even those not participating in a sports group, living in a community with a high prevalence of sports group participation are less likely to be homebound; they are highly interested and have numerous opportunities to engage in exercise.