Background/Objective Common measures of physical activity (PA) based on duration and intensity do not fully capture its complexity. Adding additional PA components of muscle strength, mechanical strain, and turning actions, can provide a more complete view of activity behavior. Furthermore, PA behaviors differ between men and women. Therefore, the goal of this study is to identify and cluster similar long-term PA patterns over time for each PA component, examined separately for men and women.

Methods We used data from 4963 participants (52% women; mean age 66 years, SD = 8.6) of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (1992–2019). PA component scores were assigned to self-reported activities, and Sequence Analysis with Optimal Matching was used to identify and cluster similar activity patterns over a period of 10 years, separately for each component and stratified by sex.

Results PA components varied by sex and displayed a unique mix of trajectories, including predominately low, medium, or high activity, increasing or decreasing patterns, and trajectories characterized by early or late mortality. Importantly, trajectories remained independent, indicating that changes in one PA component were not linked to changes in others.

Conclusion Older men and women follow distinct and independent long-term PA trajectories across components, underscoring that PA behavior cannot be described by a single dimension.

Significance/Implications The observed independence and heterogeneity of trajectories suggest that muscle strength, mechanical strain, and turning actions capture meaningful and distinct aspects of PA that are not reflected by traditional measures alone. Future PA-strategies could incorporate these dimensions and acknowledge sex-specific patterns to better reflect natural movement. The independence of components suggests that future interventions should target multiple dimensions, as changes in one component may not translate to others. Such an approach may support more tailored and sustainable PA interventions in later life.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This research was supported by a Starter and Incentive Grant (Starters- en Stimuleringsbeurs) awarded by the Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, as part of a national funding scheme from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam is supported by a grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Directorate of Long-Term Care. The data collection [in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014] was financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in the framework of the project New Cohorts of young old in the 21st century (file number 480-10-014).

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Medical ethical review board (METC) of the Amsterdam UMC (AMC) gave ethical approval for the cohort study and secondary data analyses, with approval numbers: 92/138, 2002/141, 2012/361, and 2016/301. Our study falls under the approved secondary data analyses, for which respondents provided informed consent.

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I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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Author statement: All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, and formal analysis were performed by Bram Hoogerheide. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Bram Hoogerheide and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Funding was acquired by Esther Maas and Laura Schaap.

All data analysed in the present study are owned by the Longitudinal Aging Study of Amsterdam (LASA), and are available upon upon reasonable request to this cohort study.

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