scholarly journals MIDLIFE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE AGING PROCESS: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Author(s):  
S. Puri ◽  
M. Shaheen ◽  
D.H. Pai Panandiker ◽  
R. Sinha

Increasing number of oldest old worldwide has made human longevity a major area of scientific research. It is a well-established fact that the health of an individual and the population in general are the result of interactions between genetics and a number of environmental factors; nutrition and physical activity being of major importance. The Asian Indian phenotype predisposes Indians to NCDs, more so at an earlier age. Indian diets are in a state of transition with increasing amounts of refined carbohydrates and fats being consumed. Physical activity levels are markedly low. Concomitantly, a sharp rise in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and cancers has been observed. Although some of the physiological changes experienced by older adults occur primarily as a result of the biological process of aging, lifestyle factors – such as diet and physical activity – are important modulators of the risk factors associated with chronic disease and even age related decline.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Silva-Santos ◽  
Amanda Santos ◽  
Michael Duncan ◽  
Susana Vale ◽  
Jorge Mota

Introduction: Adequate gross motor coordination is essential for children participating in age-related physical activities and has an important role in maintaining sufficient physical activity levels during the life course. Aim: To examine the association between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and gross motor coordination during sedentary behavior in early childhood (ages 3–6 y). Methods: The sample comprised 209 children aged 3–6 y. Gross motor coordination was assessed according to the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2). The battery to assess gross motor coordination comprised the aiming and catching, and balance components. MVPA was measured by accelerometry worn for 7 consecutive days (Monday to Sunday). Results: Our data indicated that 31.5% of the sample had low, 32.5% medium, and 36.0% high gross motor coordination. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that MVPA was positively associated with gross motor coordination, adjusted for gender and sedentary behavior. Conclusions: Preschoolers with high gross motor coordination spend more time in MVPA. Gross motor coordination development should therefore be a key strategy in childhood interventions aiming to promote physical activity.


1995 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Panter-Brick

SummaryChanges in body weight were examined for non-pregnant women in rural Nepal, using 183 anthropometric measures between the early winter and monsoon seasons in 1982, 1982–83, 1990–91 and 1993. The women gained weight when work loads decreased after the monsoon, but despite substantial changes in total energy expenditure, which were out of phase with changes in food intake, seasonal changes were small, averaging only up to 2.6% of initial body weight.There were notable differences between individual women, changes in body weight ranging from-5·6 kg to 4·8 kg. Weight change was examined with respect to lactation status, age, body mass index, mid upper arm circumference and skinfolds as well as total energy expenditure and intake. Non-lactating women, very thin women and women aged under 25 years gained more weight than their counterparts, both before and after the monsoon. Data for a sub-sample in 1982–83 indicated that women who maintained high physical activity levels throughout the year were less prone to weight loss than women whose activity fluctuated between seasons. Initial energy reserves, age-related maturation factors, levels of physical activity and energy intake combine to produce the notable inter-individual variation in body weight changes observed in this population.


Author(s):  
Cathy Speed

A generally enhanced health status in an increasingly ageing population allows many to maintain high physical activity levels, and competitive masters and seniors events are becoming progressively more popular. This, together with the recognition of the importance of exercise to mitigate or even reverse many age-related changes, means that the physician in sport and exercise medicine requires a high index of awareness of the specific issues that arise in relation to sporting injury in the ageing individual. These issues include not only recognition and management of sports injuries ...


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
ME Barker ◽  
P Hardy-Johnson ◽  
S Weller ◽  
A Haileamalak ◽  
L Jarju ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: Adolescent diet, physical activity and nutritional status are generally known to be sub-optimal. This is an introduction to a special issue of papers devoted to exploring factors affecting diet and physical activity in adolescents, including food insecure and vulnerable groups. Setting Eight settings including urban, peri-urban and rural across sites from five different low- and middle-income countries. Design: Focus groups with adolescents and caregivers carried out by trained researchers. Results: Our results show that adolescents, even in poor settings, know about healthy diet and lifestyles. They want to have energy, feel happy, look good and live longer, but their desire for autonomy, a need to ‘belong’ in their peer group, plus vulnerability to marketing exploiting their aspirations, leads them to make unhealthy choices. They describe significant gender, culture and context-specific barriers. For example, urban adolescents had easy access to energy dense, unhealthy foods bought outside the home, whereas junk foods were only beginning to permeate rural sites. Among adolescents in Indian sites, pressure to excel in exams meant that academic studies were squeezing out physical activity time. Conclusions: Interventions to improve adolescents’ diets and physical activity levels must therefore address structural and environmental issues and influences in their homes and schools, since it is clear that their food and activity choices are the product of an interacting complex of factors. In the next phase of work, the Transforming Adolescent Lives through Nutrition consortium will employ groups of adolescents, caregivers and local stakeholders in each site to develop interventions to improve adolescent nutritional status.


2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
YoonMyung Kim ◽  
SoJung Lee

Childhood obesity continues to escalate despite considerable efforts to reverse the current trends. Childhood obesity is a leading public health concern because overweight–obese youth suffer from comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease, conditions once considered limited to adults. This increasing prevalence of chronic health conditions in youth closely parallels the dramatic increase in obesity, in particular abdominal adiposity, in youth. Although mounting evidence in adults demonstrates the benefits of regular physical activity as a treatment strategy for abdominal obesity, the independent role of regular physical activity alone (e.g., without calorie restriction) on abdominal obesity, and in particular visceral fat, is largely unclear in youth. There is some evidence to suggest that, independent of sedentary activity levels (e.g., television watching or playing video games), engaging in higher-intensity physical activity is associated with a lower waist circumference and less visceral fat. Several randomized controlled studies have shown that aerobic types of exercise are protective against age-related increases in visceral adiposity in growing children and adolescents. However, evidence regarding the effect of resistance training alone as a strategy for the treatment of abdominal obesity is lacking and warrants further investigation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Ludlow ◽  
Stephen M. Roth

Physical activity is associated with reduced risk of several age-related diseases as well as with increased longevity in both rodents and humans. Though these associations are well established, evidence of the molecular and cellular factors associated with reduced disease risk and increased longevity resulting from physical activity is sparse. A long-standing hypothesis of aging is the telomere hypothesis: as a cell divides, telomeres shorten resulting eventually in replicative senescence and an aged phenotype. Several reports have recently associated telomeres and telomere-related proteins to diseases associated with physical inactivity and aging including cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, and hypertension. Interestingly several reports have also shown that longer telomeres are associated with higher physical activity levels, indicating a potential mechanistic link between physical activity, reduced age-related disease risk, and longevity. The primary purpose of this review is to discuss the potential importance of physical activity in telomere biology in the context of inactivity- and age-related diseases. A secondary purpose is to explore potential mechanisms and important avenues for future research in the field of telomeres and diseases associated with physical inactivity and aging.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
pp. 1215-1223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila L.P. Oliveira ◽  
Isabelle J. Dionne ◽  
Carla M. Prado

Aging is characterized by physiological and morphological changes that affect body composition, strength, and function, ultimately leading to sarcopenia. This condition results in physical disability, falls, fractures, poor quality of life, and increased health care costs. Evidence suggests that increased consumption of dietary protein and physical activity levels, especially resistance exercise, can counteract the trajectory of sarcopenia. Canadian guidelines for protein intake and physical activity were last updated in 2005 and 2011, respectively, and new evidence on sarcopenia diagnosis, prevention, and treatment is rapidly evolving. Protein recommendations are set as “one-size-fits-all” for both young and older adults. Recent evidence demonstrates that current recommendations are insufficient to meet the minimum protein requirement to counteract muscle loss and to stimulate hypertrophy in healthy older adults. Beyond quantity, protein quality is also essential to benefit muscle anabolism in older adults. In terms of physical activity, resistance exercise training is a potential strategy to counteract age-related effects, as it can elicit muscle hypertrophic response in addition to increases in muscle strength and function in older adults. Canadian physical activity guidelines lack details on how this modality of training should be performed. Current guidelines for protein intake and physical activity do not reflect recent knowledge on sarcopenia prevention. The gap between guidelines and the latest evidence on the maintenance and promotion of older adult’s health highlight the need for updated protein and physical activity recommendations.


Author(s):  
Nancy Albert ◽  
Robert Butler ◽  
Jeanne Sorrell

Hospitals often promote healthy lifestyles, but little is known about nurses’ actual diet and physical activity. Greater understanding about these lifestyle choices for clinical nurses may improve existing hospital-based programs and/or create desirable services. This article discusses a study that considered diet and physical activity of clinical nurses, using elements of Pender’s self-care theory as a conceptual framework. Study methods included a cross-sectional, correlational design and a convenience sample of 278 nurses who worked on units with 24 hours/day and seven days-per-week responsibilities. Participants completed diet and exercise questionnaires about perceptions of attitudes and opinions, barriers, diet benefits/exercise motivators, self-efficacy, and locus of control, and personal and work characteristics. Diet and activity categories were created. Study results demonstrated that over 50% of nurses had moderately healthy diets but were insufficiently active. Healthy diet and physical activity levels were associated with higher self-efficacy, more diet benefits and physical activity motivators, fewer perceived barriers, and confidence in body image. The article discussion and conclusion sections note areas for future research and suggest that focused interventions that address benefits, motivators, and self-efficacy may increase participation in hospital-based programs and enhance healthy lifestyle for hospital-based clinical nurses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 557-566
Author(s):  
Mark Stevens ◽  
Tegan Cruwys

Abstract Background Physical activity tends to decline in older age, despite being key to health and longevity. Previous investigations have focused on demographic and individual factors that predict sustained physical activity. Purpose To examine whether engaging in physical activity in the context of sport or exercise group membership can protect against age-related physical activity decline. Methods Drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, participants were members of sport or exercise groups aged 50 and over (N = 2015) as well as nonmember controls, who were matched at baseline for age, sex, and physical activity levels (N = 1881). Longitudinal mixed effects models were used to assess the effect of sport or exercise group membership on physical activity and longevity across a 14-year follow-up. Results Members of sport or exercise groups experienced an attenuated decline in both moderate and vigorous physical activity over a 14-year follow-up compared to physically active matched controls. Sport or exercise group members were also less likely to have died at follow-up, an effect that was mediated through sustained physical activity. Conclusions Promoting membership in sport and exercise groups may be a beneficial strategy for supporting sustained physical activity and health among older people.


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