Abstract
Background. Research in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients has shown that a significant proportion of sedentary time (ST), light physical activity (LPA) and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) occurs beyond their neighborhoods. However, as romantic partners play a role in changing patients’ ST and PA, it is important to delineate if they have similar behavioral patterns.
Purpose. Determine how much ST, LPA and MVPA was spent at home and inside versus outside the neighborhood for patients and their partners.
Methods. Patient-partner dyads (recruited from outpatient and maintenance CR classes) completed a survey and wore an accelerometer and GPS unit for 7 days. The accelerometer / GPS data was combined at the minute level and imported into ArcGIS Pro. Each minute was coded as being at home or inside (road network distance ≤ 1600m from home) versus outside (> 1600m) the neighborhood and the percentage of time engaged in ST, LPA, and MVPA across the 3 contexts was calculated.
Results. To date, 44 dyads (patient mean age = 67.46; partner mean age = 65.85) had ≥ 2 valid accelerometer + GPS days. The majority of ST (66.29%), LPA (64.69%) and MVPA (46.10%) was spent at home or outside the neighborhood (ST=28.18%; LPA=29.64%; MVPA=44.19%) for patients. For partners, ST (74.29%), LPA (71.95%) and MVPA (57.80%) was primarily spent at home or outside the neighborhood (ST=20.80%; LPA=23.39%; MVPA=33.05%).
Discussion. When CR patients and partners were not home, they were more likely to engage in ST, LPA, and MVPA outside of their neighborhoods.
