The Associations between Meeting 24-Hour Movement Guidelines (24-HMG) and Self-Rated Physical and Mental Health in Older Adults—Cross Sectional Evidence from China

Abstract

Background: This study determined the prevalence of older adults (aged 60–80 years) meeting the Canadian 24-HMG alone and in combination, and their association with the self-rated physical health and mental health of older adults. Methods: Participants were drawn from 4134 older adults aged 60–80 years (age, 67.37 ± 0.08 years; 46.87% male) from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) 2015 database. Mental health and physical health scores were obtained based on self-rated mental health questionnaires and physical health of older adults. The criteria for meeting the 24-HMG were: physical activity time ≥ 150 min/week, sedentary time ≤ 480 min/day, screen time ≤ 180 min/day, sleep time 7–9 h (60–64 years) and sleep time 7–8 h (65 years and above). Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between meeting the 24-HMG guidelines number and category and older adults’ self-rated mental and physical health. Results: The proportion of older people meeting three of the 24-HMG guidelines was 1.16%, the proportion meeting two guidelines was 38.19% and the proportion meeting one guideline was 49.14%. The number of people meeting 24-HMG was closely related to the self-rated physical health and mental health of older people. The category meeting 24-HMG was closely related to the self-rated physical health and mental health of older people. Conclusions: Meeting more guidelines in the 24-HMG was strongly associated with older people’s self-rated mental health and physical health. However, only a small proportion of older people met all the recommendations, highlighting the need to promote and support adherence to these movement behaviours.