Relationship between participation in projects of incentives to promote walking and healthy aging among the older population: A four-year longitudinal study

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the association between the Yokohama Walking Point Program, which promotes walking through feedback on step counts and incentives, and the extension of healthy life expectancy.

Methods

A total of 4298 individuals aged over 65 years who responded to the 2013 and 2016 surveys and who were not certified as needing long-term care in 2016 were included in this study. The participants were categorized into “non-participation,” “participation without uploading,” and “participation with uploading” groups based on their involvement and uploading of pedometer data. The objective variable was the occurrence of long-term care certification and deaths over the subsequent four years. A modified Poisson regression model was applied, adjusting for 15 variables before project initiation.

Results

A total of 440 participants (10.2 %) were included in the “participation with uploading” group and 206 (4.8 %) in the “participation without uploading” group. Compared with “non-participation,” the risk ratio was 0.77 (95 % confidence interval (CI): 0.59–0.99) for “participation with uploading” and 1.02 (95 % CI: 0.75–1.38) for “participation without uploading”. In the sensitivity analysis censoring death as an inapplicable outcome and considering functional decline, participation with uploading showed a risk ratio of 0.79 (95 % CI: 0.60–1.04) for the likelihood of functional decline.

Conclusions

The use of pedometers and health point programs based on walking activity is associated with enhancing the health of older individuals participating in the program, representing a population-centric strategy targeting all citizens.