Reported Exercise Patterns and their Relationship to Lipid Levels among Healthy Older Adults

Abstract

There have been few studies concerning the relationship between exercise habits and lipid levels of older adults. This study examines this relationship using data from 117 healthy older adults who volunteered to participate in a health promotion project. Responses to a seven-day activity recall questionnaire, percentage of body fat as measured by bioelectric impedance, age, and gender were used to predict total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglyceride levels. Only the model predicting HDL was significant (R²=. 15, p = .002). Subsequent regression analyses predicting HDL levels were limited to persons who participated in one or more exercise sessions in the previous week. For these active women, the model's ability to predict HDL improved (R² = .37,p = .005), with exercise level having the greatest effect. For the active men, the model's predictive ability was not significant. The findings suggest that for active women, level of physical activity does modestly influence HDL levels.