Physical activity and its association with chronic diseases in the elderly in 11 cities of Peru

Aim: To determine the frequency of physical activity and its association with chronic diseases in the elderly in eleven cities of Peru.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of secondary data was conducted; the dependent variable was not the realization of physical activity, chronic disease and other physio-anthropometric variables were independent variables. For bivariate and multivariate analysis generalized linear models were used. A confidence level of 95% and p < 0.05 as statistically significant was considered.

Results: Of the 1030 elderly 68% (698) did not perform physical activity. When performing the multivariate model was obtained for every year of age increased by 1.5% frequency do physical activity (RPA: 1.015, 95% CI 1.006-1.024, p = 0.001) for each additional centimeter waist decreased 0.6% performing physical activity (RPA: 0.994, 95% CI: 0.992-0.997, p < 0.001) and those suffering from other chronic heart disease (RPA: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.02-1.30. p = 0.019) had higher frequencies of no physical activity, adjusted for sex and city of residence.

Conclusion: No physical activity was associated with suffering from some heart disease, older age and waist circumference. We need to consider these results from the study to promote physical activity in this population.