Physical Activities and the Oldest Old’s Health

This chapter contributes the literature by studying the changing patterns of Chinese oldest old’s physical activity patterns over time and across birth cohorts. Based on the descriptive results, percentages of the oldest old who exercised both in the past and at present show a declining trend over time. This makes sense because as time goes by, the respondents were getting older and they became less active as compared to previous years. But such percentages seem to increase among younger birth cohorts, indicating that younger birth cohorts are more physically active than older ones. When using the physical activity variable to predict the oldest old’s health, those who exercised both in the past and at present have better SRH, cognitive function, subjective wellbeing and a fewer number of chronic diseases than the reference group, i.e., the more sedentary group. Significant period and cohort effects are observed as well. Specifically, the predicted cognitive function tends to increase over time. The positive feeling scores show a significant drop in year 2008; and the predicted SRH shows a declining trend over time. The cognitive function advantage among the more active group is declining across birth cohorts. It is probably because that other social, cultural, behavioral and medical factors have played a stronger role in benefiting the oldest old’s cognitive function among younger birth cohorts. The health disparities between the sedentary and more active groups revealed by this study have again emphasized the importance of active lifestyles in maintaining the oldest old’s healthy status. Increasing physical activity level is essential in promoting healthy aging.