Ethnic differences in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by physical activity levels among older adults in the US

ABSTRACTAims: This study sought to determine whether the association between varying levels of physical activity (PA) and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality differ by race/ethnicity in older adults.Methods: The sample comprised 2520 women and 2398 men drawn from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (1988–1994) aged ≥ 60 years. We used the metabolic equivalent (MET) of self-reported PA levels to define activity groups (inactive: those who did not report any PA; active: those who reported 3–6 METs for ≥5 times/week or >6 METs, ≥3 times/week; insufficiently active: those meeting neither criteria). Racial/Ethnic differences were modeled using proportional hazard regression (HR) adjusting for age, education, smoking, diabetes, and hypertension.Results: Among those classified as inactive, Non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) (HR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.58–0.90) and Mexican Americans (HR: 0.59, 95%CI: 0.45–0.78) had a lower risk of all-cause mortality when compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). Among those cla...