Being active combats risk of functional problems

By Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - To maintain basic physical abilities in middle age and older, make sure physical activity is a high priority -- regardless of body weight. "The message is use it or lose it," Dr. Iain Lang told Reuters Health.

Lang, of Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, United Kingdom, and colleagues found that middle-aged people who were more active were less likely to become unable to walk several blocks, climb stairs, maintain their sense of balance, stand from a seated position with their arms folded, or sustain their hand grip strength over time.

"Being physically active is beneficial for people in all weight categories," Lang said.

Lang and colleagues report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society that among men and women aged 50 to 69 years, across all weight ranges, the rate of impaired function was twice as high in those who were less physically active as in those who were more physically active.

The investigators looked at 8702 participants in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study and 1507 subjects in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, who were followed for up to 6 years.

The team found that compared to being of normal weight, being overweight and obese was associated with an overall increased risk of impairment. However, regardless of weight, people who engaged in heavy housework or gardening, playing sports, or holding a physically active job, were less likely to develop mobility problems than were less physically active people

Over the 6-year period, some sort of physical disability developed in fewer than 13 percent of the people who were active for about 30 minutes on 3 or more days a week. By contrast, physical disability developed in about 24 percent of those who were less active.

"This suggests that the benefits of exercise in middle-aged adults don't come only through maintaining healthy body weight, "Lang said. "Whatever their bodyweight, people will derive health benefits from staying physically active."

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, November 2007.