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The association between social support and physical activity in older adults: a systematic review

Overview of attention for article published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, April 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (91st percentile)

Mentioned by

news
13 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
policy
1 policy source
twitter
68 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page

Citations

dimensions_citation
482 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
846 Mendeley
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Title
The association between social support and physical activity in older adults: a systematic review
Published in
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, April 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12966-017-0509-8
Pubmed ID
Authors

Gabrielle Lindsay Smith, Lauren Banting, Rochelle Eime, Grant O’Sullivan, Jannique G. Z. van Uffelen

Abstract

The promotion of active and healthy ageing is becoming increasingly important as the population ages. Physical activity (PA) significantly reduces all-cause mortality and contributes to the prevention of many chronic illnesses. However, the proportion of people globally who are active enough to gain these health benefits is low and decreases with age. Social support (SS) is a social determinant of health that may improve PA in older adults, but the association has not been systematically reviewed. This review had three aims: 1) Systematically review and summarise studies examining the association between SS, or loneliness, and PA in older adults; 2) clarify if specific types of SS are positively associated with PA; and 3) investigate whether the association between SS and PA differs between PA domains. Quantitative studies examining a relationship between SS, or loneliness, and PA levels in healthy, older adults over 60 were identified using MEDLINE, PSYCInfo, SportDiscus, CINAHL and PubMed, and through reference lists of included studies. Quality of these studies was rated. This review included 27 papers, of which 22 were cross sectional studies, three were prospective/longitudinal and two were intervention studies. Overall, the study quality was moderate. Four articles examined the relation of PA with general SS, 17 with SS specific to PA (SSPA), and six with loneliness. The results suggest that there is a positive association between SSPA and PA levels in older adults, especially when it comes from family members. No clear associations were identified between general SS, SSPA from friends, or loneliness and PA levels. When measured separately, leisure time PA (LTPA) was associated with SS in a greater percentage of studies than when a number of PA domains were measured together. The evidence surrounding the relationship between SS, or loneliness, and PA in older adults suggests that people with greater SS for PA are more likely to do LTPA, especially when the SS comes from family members. However, high variability in measurement methods used to assess both SS and PA in included studies made it difficult to compare studies.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 68 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 846 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 846 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 112 13%
Student > Master 111 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 103 12%
Researcher 52 6%
Student > Doctoral Student 51 6%
Other 126 15%
Unknown 291 34%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 131 15%
Sports and Recreations 86 10%
Medicine and Dentistry 72 9%
Psychology 68 8%
Social Sciences 60 7%
Other 100 12%
Unknown 329 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 139. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 January 2024.
All research outputs
#301,164
of 25,587,485 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
#82
of 2,129 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,231
of 323,927 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
#5
of 48 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,587,485 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,129 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 29.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 323,927 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 48 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.