Age differences in the association of physical leisure activities with incident disability among community-dwelling older adults

BACKGROUND: The relationship between leisure activities (LA) in old age and prevention of disability has not been fully investigated, and age and gender differences of these relationships are unknown. This study aimed to investigate whether physical and cognitive LA predicted incident disability among community-dwelling older adults by age and gender. METHODS: We prospectively observed 8,275 residents aged 65 or above without disability at baseline for 3 years. Incident disability was defined as a new certification of the public long-term care insurance system. LA were classified into two types: physical LA and cognitive LA. The frequency of LA was categorized into frequent (i.e., once a week or more), moderate (i.e., monthly or yearly), and non-engagement. Covariates included age, gender, family number, education, perceived economic situation, body mass index, chronic medical conditions, alcohol consumption, smoking status, regular dental visits, depression, cognitive functioning, and social participation. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to estimate adjusted cumulative incidence ratio (CIR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for incident disability. We performed stratified analyses by age groups (i.e., the young-old aged 65–74 and the old-old aged 75–97) and gender (i.e., men and women). RESULTS: The 3-year cumulative incidence of disability was 7.5%. After adjustment for covariates and mutual adjustment for both types of LA, a significant dose-response relationship between more frequent LA and lower risk of incident disability was found in young-old physical LA (P-trend < 0.001), in old-old cognitive LA (P-trend = 0.012), in male cognitive LA (P-trend = 0.006), and in female physical LA (P-trend = 0.030). Compared with people without LA, adjusted CIR (95% CI) of frequent LA was 0.47 (0.30–0.74) in young-old physical, 0.75 (0.58–0.96) in old-old cognitive, 0.65 (0.46–0.89) in male cognitive, and 0.70 (0.52–0.95) in female physical. Regarding the effect modification according to age and gender, only interaction between age and physical LA significantly prevented incident disability (P for interaction = 0.019). CONCLUSION: We found age differences in the association of physical LA with incident disability among community-dwelling older adults. An effective measure to prevent long-term care in the community would be to recommend frequent physical LA for the young-old. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1265/ehpm.21-00018.