Abstract

Background: Japan is the world’s leading super-aged society, which makes locomotive syndrome an urgent issue. Because increasing the frequency of going out is considered a practical primary preventive measure against locomotive syndrome, we examined the relationship between the frequency of going out and locomotive syndrome in elderly females in Japan.

Methods: The subjects were 8,027 females from 46 prefectures in Japan who were living at home and aged 65 and older as of November 1, 2012. The study period was from November 1 to December 31, 2012. The survey was implemented by distributing questionnaires, as well as conducting face–to–face interviews. Odds ratios were obtained using logistic regression models with locomotive syndrome as the dependent variable.

Results: Eight thousands twenty seven females were analyzed in this study. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of locomotive syndrome depending on the frequency of going out (p<0.001) as the prevalence of locomotive syndrome decreased as the frequency of going out increased. When the results were adjusted for gender, the frequency of going out, age, use of national nursing–care insurance services, household composition, severity of obesity, and self-rated health, the prevalence of locomotive syndrome was high in those whose frequency of going out was “twice or less a week” (Odds ratio: 1.41, 95% Confidence interval 1.20–1.64).

Conclusions: The results suggest that it is possible to prevent locomotive syndrome by encouraging elderly people to maintain and increase their frequency of going out.

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