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Fewer than 3 in 10 older adults met federal physical activity guidelines.
Exercise
Routine exercise has immediate benefits for older adults, such as improving sleep quality, reducing anxiety and improving blood pressure.63 Exercise also helps prevent chronic diseases like dementia, heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and reduces premature death overall.64
Nationally, the percentage of adults age 65 and older who reported meeting the federal physical activity guidelines (150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity and two days of muscle strengthening per week) in the past 30 days was 29.0% in 2023.
Differences. In 2023, exercise among older adults significantly varied by disability status, educational attainment, geography, household income, race/ethnicity, gender and metropolitan status. The prevalence among adults age 65 and older was:
- 2.7 times higher among those without a disability (34.6%) compared with those who have difficulty with self-care (12.7%).
- 2.5 times higher among college graduates (39.1%) than those with less than a high school education (15.6%).
- 2.2 times higher in Colorado (36.7%) than in Mississippi (16.9%).
- 1.9 times higher among those with an annual household income of $75,000 or more (37.4%) than those with incomes less than $25,000 (20.0%).
- 1.7 times higher among Asian (39.1%) than Hispanic (22.4%) older adults.
- 1.2 times higher among men (31.6%) than women (26.7%).
- 1.2 times higher among those living in metropolitan areas (29.8%) compared with those in nonmetropolitan areas (25.0%).
Note: No data were available for Kentucky or Pennsylvania in 2023. The values for older adults who have difficulty with self-care and those with independent living difficulty (14.4%) may not differ significantly from each other based on overlapping 95% confidence intervals. The same is true among Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (38.6%), other race (34.4%) and multiracial (31.9%) older adults; as well as among Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native (26.2%), Black (26.5%) and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander older adults.