American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on July 26, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 166(5):616-617; doi:10.1093/aje/kwm209
American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2007. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
THE AUTHORS REPLY
Annabelle S. Slingerland1,2,3,
Frank J. van Lenthe3,
J. Wouter Jukema2,
Carlijn B. M. Kamphuis3,
Caspar Looman3,
Kathrina Giskes3,4,
Martijn Huisman3,5,
K. M. Venkat Narayan6,
Johan P. Mackenbach3 and
Johannes Brug3,7
1 Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom EX1 2LU
2 Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands 2300 RC
3 Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands 3000 CA
4 School of Public Health and Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Q4001
5 Department of Psychiatry, Interdisciplinary Center for Psychiatric Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands 9700 RB
6 Hubert Department of Global Health, The Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30329
7 EMGO Institute, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1007 MB
(e-mail: annabelleslingerland{at}hetnet.nl)
We would like to thank Henkens et al. (1) for their interest and comments on our paper (2). Our paper concerns the change in nonsports leisure-time physical activity and sports participation relative to the change in work-related transport physical activity after retirement. We agree with Henkens et al. that it is hard to evaluate a change in physical activity for participants in the highest category that spent >2 hours/week on nonsports leisure-time physical activity or sports participation. Studies for which data on a continuous or a more detailed categorical variable for time are available should be able to more precisely examine changes within this category. Yet, we believe that this would not essentially alter our conclusion. The majority of individuals in the highest category of nonsports leisure-time physical activity were already in that category in 1991, which reduces the possibility of major changes (both for retirees and those still employed) after follow-up. Then, it is not very likely that an increase in hours of physical activity within the highest category would compensate for the decline in work-related transport physical activity for the retirees. Indeed, the decline in work-related transport physical activity is expectedly inevitable, while increasing hours of physical activity after retirement is a choice to be made by individuals within their (perceived) possibilities. In addition, the population health benefits of increased physical activity will be achieved mainly by people moving from the lowest to a higher category rather than from people in the highest category further increasing their hours of physical activity. Our results, therefore, remain reason for concern.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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Conflict of interest: none declared.
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References
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- Henkens K, van Solinge H, Gallo W. Re:"Aging, retirement, and changes in physical activity: prospective cohort findings from the GLOBE Study." (Letter). Am J Epidemiol (2007) 166:616.[Free Full Text]
- Slingerland AS, van Lenthe FJ, Jukema JW, et al. Aging, retirement, and changes in physical activity: prospective cohort findings from the GLOBE Study. Am J Epidemiol (2007) 165:1356–63.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
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