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Fitness & Exercise for Senior Citizens
Senior Citizens Can Lower Death Risk with Just More
Daily Activity
Older adults who expend more energy through any
daily activity live longer than less active elderly
 July 11, 2006 You may be old even in your 70s
or 80s and just cannot make yourself exert the energy for regular
exercise, but there is still hope for a longer life, says a new study,
if you just expend more energy through daily activity, even non-exercise
activity.
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Fitness & Exercise |
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It is true that studies have shown that older
adults who report low physical activity levels are at a higher risk of
death compared with those who report moderate or high levels of
activity, according to this report in the July 12 issue of JAMA.
These findings, however, have been based on
questionnaires asking about physical activity levels, which may not be
recalled accurately and are unable to account for many types of daily
activity, according to the authors.
Self-reported physical activity does not provide
accurate estimates of absolute amounts of activity (kilocalories per
day) and thus is less precise in determining whether higher levels of
total activity-induced energy expenditure offer survival advantages.
Todd M. Manini, Ph.D., of the National Institute on
Aging, Bethesda, Md., and colleagues conducted a study to determine the
association of free-living activity energy expenditure with death from
all causes in a group of 302 high-functioning, community-dwelling older
adults ranging in age from 70 to 82.
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Senior Citizens Can Lower
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July 11, 2006 You may be old even in your 70s
or 80s and just cannot make yourself exert the energy for regular
exercise, but there is still hope for a longer life, says a new study,
if you just expend more energy through daily activity, even non-exercise
activity.
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The researchers measured energy expenditure over a
two week period using a technique that includes determining the rate at
which certain isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, given as doubly labeled
water, are eliminated from the body as carbon dioxide, a direct measure
of total energy expenditure. The resting metabolic rate was also
measured.
Participants were followed up over an average of
6.15 years (1998-2006). Fifty-five participants (18.2 percent) died
during follow-up.
But, the researchers found that, after adjusting
for various factors, higher levels of activity energy expenditure and
physical activity were associated with a lower risk of death.
Compared with the third of individuals with the
lowest activity energy expenditure, those in the highest third had a 69
percent lower risk of death.
The absolute risk of death was
● 12.1 percent in the highest third of activity
energy expenditure,
● 17.6 percent in the middle, and
● 24.7 percent in the lowest third.
According to self-reports, individuals expending
higher levels of free-living activity energy were more likely to work
for pay and climb stairs but self-reported high-intensity exercise,
walking for exercise, walking other than exercise, volunteering, and
caregiving did not differ significantly across the activity energy
expenditure three groups.
The authors suggest that this lack of relationship
is likely due to the inaccuracies of self-reported activity levels.
Our study suggests that any activity energy
expenditure in older adults can help lower mortality risks..., the
authors write. Efforts to increase or maintain free-living activity
energy expenditure will likely improve the health of older adults.
Editor's Note: This research was supported by the
Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health,
National Institute on Aging, with additional support from the National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Editorial: Objectively Measured Physical Activity
and Mortality in Older Adults
In an accompanying editorial, Steven N. Blair,
P.E.D., of the Cooper Institute, Dallas, and William L. Haskell, Ph.D.,
of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., comment
on the findings of Manini and colleagues.
Higher levels of activity energy expenditure
appear to be protective, and it is relevant to discuss how much and what
type of physical activity is required to achieve these benefits.
Ultimately, public health experts should consider how these results can
be translated into recommendations for individuals.
...Manini et als conclusion that simply
expending energy through any activity may influence survival in older
adults is provocative and if documented by future research would have
major implications for physical activity recommendations.
"However, such a conclusion needs to be verified in
studies that would combine activity energy expenditure assessed by
doubly labeled water and the intensity profile determined using recently
developed accelerometer [an instrument for measuring the rate of change
of velocity per unit of time] technologies.
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