0000000000164550
AUTHOR
Jack M. Guralnik
Depressed mood and body mass index as predictors of muscle strength decline in old men
OBJECTIVE: To study depressed mood as a predictor of strength decline within body weight categories over a 3-year follow-up period. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study over 3 years. SETTING: Honolulu, Hawaii. PARTICIPANTS: The subjects were 2275 men participating in the Honolulu Heart Program with an average age of 77.1 years (range 71–92 years), who were not cognitively impaired at baseline (Exam 4), and who participated in maximal hand grip strength measurements at baseline and 3 years later (Exam 5). MEASUREMENTS: Hand grip strength was measured using a dynamometer. Depressive symptoms were studied using an 11-item version of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale with 9 as a c…
Coimpairments as Predictors of Severe Walking Disability in Older Women
OBJECTIVE: Severe disabilities are common among older people who have impairments in a range of physiologic systems. It is not known, however, whether the presence of multiple impairments, or coimpairments, is associated with increased risk of developing new disability. The aim of this study was to determine the combined effects of two impairments, decreased knee-extension strength and poor standing balance, on the risk of developing severe walking disability among older, moderately-to-severely disabled women who did not have severe walking disability at baseline. DESIGN: The Women's Health and Aging Study is a 3-year prospective study with 6 semi-annual follow-up data-collection rounds fol…
A common biological basis of obesity and nicotine addiction
Contains fulltext : 128630.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Smoking influences body weight such that smokers weigh less than non-smokers and smoking cessation often leads to weight increase. The relationship between body weight and smoking is partly explained by the effect of nicotine on appetite and metabolism. However, the brain reward system is involved in the control of the intake of both food and tobacco. We evaluated the effect of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affecting body mass index (BMI) on smoking behavior, and tested the 32 SNPs identified in a meta-analysis for association with two smoking phenotypes, smoking initiation (SI) and the number of cigarettes smoked …
Disability, physical activity, and muscle strength in older women: The women's health and aging study
Abstract Objective: To study associations of motor disability, physical activity, and muscle strength in older women, in particular to investigate whether model of spiraling decrease is expressed in the data. Design: Cross-sectional analysis using data from the base-line measurements of The Women's Health and Aging Study (WHAS). Setting: Participants' homes. Participants: A total of 1,002 disabled women aged 65 years and older living in the community. Outcome Measures: Motor disability was measured by the number of self-reported difficulties in grasping, lifting 101b, walking across a small room, walking 14 mile, climbing 10 steps, and doing heavy housework. Level of physical activity was d…
Assessment of impairments that limit exercise and use of impairment information to generate an exercise.
Prescribing the correct exercise program is a challenge for older adults with multiple physiological impairments. The authors evaluated an assessment instrument that incorporates results of multiple categories of impairment, including strength, balance, gait, vision, and cognitive function. The physical therapist made judgments on the relative impact of 9 different impairments on specific exercises and on the total impact of all impairments on particular exercises. In a cohort age 75–85 y, functional limitations, impaired balance, pain, and low physical endurance were estimated to have the largest impact on the ability to carry out exercise activities, primarily walking, stair climbing, bal…
The effect of obesity combined with low muscle strength on decline in mobility in older persons: results from the InCHIANTI study.
Both obesity and muscle impairment are increasingly prevalent among older persons and negatively affect health and physical functioning. However, the combined effect of coexisting obesity and muscle impairment on physical function decline has been little studied. We examined whether obese persons with low muscle strength experience significantly greater declines in walking speed and mobility than persons with only obesity or low muscle strength.Community-dwelling adults agedor = 65 years (n = 930) living in the Chianti geographic area (Tuscany, Italy) were followed for 6 years in the population-based InCHIANTI study.On the basis of baseline measurements (1998-2000), obesity was defined as b…
The assessment of scales of frailty and physical performance improves prediction of major adverse cardiac events in older adults with acute coronary syndrome
Abstract Background The number of older adults admitted to hospital for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) has increased worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine which scale of frailty or physical performance provides incremental improvements in risk stratification of older adults after ACS. Methods A prospective cohort of 402 older (≥70 years) ACS patients were enrolled. Data about baseline characteristics, Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE), and Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk scores were collected. Before hospital discharge, seven scales of frailty and physical performance were measured. The 1-year occurrence of adverse events (cardiac death, reinfarct…
Genome-wide Trans-ethnic Meta-analysis Identifies Seven Genetic Loci Influencing Erythrocyte Traits and a Role for RBPMS in Erythropoiesis
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified loci for erythrocyte traits in primarily European ancestry populations. We conducted GWAS meta-analyses of six erythrocyte traits in 71,638 individuals from European, East Asian, and African ancestries using a Bayesian approach to account for heterogeneity in allelic effects and variation in the structure of linkage disequilibrium between ethnicities. We identified seven loci for erythrocyte traits including a locus (RBPMS/GTF2E2) associated with mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume. Statistical fine-mapping at this locus pointed to RBPMS at this locus and excluded nearby GTF2E2. Using zebrafish morpholino to evaluat…
Mediterranean diet and mobility decline in older persons.
We examined whether adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet has positive effects on mobility assessed over a nine-year follow-up in a representative sample of older adults. This research is part of the InCHIANTI Study, a prospective population-based study of older persons in Tuscany, Italy. The sample for this analysis included 935 women and men aged 65 years and older. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed at baseline by the standard 10-unit Mediterranean diet score (MDS). Lower extremity function was measured at baseline, and at the 3, 6 and 9-year follow-up visits using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). At baseline, higher adherence to Mediterranean diet was assoc…
A two-stage genome-wide association study of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
The cause of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is largely unknown, but genetic factors are thought to play a significant role in determining susceptibility to motor neuron degeneration. To identify genetic variants altering risk of ALS, we undertook a two-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS): we followed our initial GWAS of 545 066 SNPs in 553 individuals with ALS and 2338 controls by testing the 7600 most associated SNPs from the first stage in three independent cohorts consisting of 2160 cases and 3008 controls. None of the SNPs selected for replication exceeded the Bonferroni threshold for significance. The two most significantly associated SNPs, rs2708909 and rs2708851 …
Age-associated changes in skeletal muscles and their effect on mobility: an operational diagnosis of sarcopenia.
Sarcopenia, the reduction of muscle mass and strength that occurs with aging, is widely considered one of the major causes of disability in older persons. Surprisingly, criteria that may help a clinician to identify persons with impaired muscle function are still lacking. Using data from a large representative sample of the general population, we examined how muscle function and calf muscle area change with aging and affect mobility in men and women free of neurological conditions. We tested several putative indicators of sarcopenia, including knee extension isometric torque, handgrip, lower extremity muscle power, and calf muscle area. For each indicator, sarcopenia was considered to be p…
Handgrip strength and cause-specific and total mortality in older disabled women: exploring the mechanism.
OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between muscle strength and total and cause-specific mortality and the plausible contributing factors to this association, such as presence of diseases commonly underlying mortality, inflammation, nutritional deficiency, physical inactivity, smoking, and depression. DESIGN: Prospective population-based cohort study with mortality surveillance over 5 years. SETTING: Elderly women residing in the eastern half of Baltimore, Maryland, and part of Baltimore County. PARTICIPANTS: Nine hundred nineteen moderately to severely disabled women aged 65 to 101 who participated in handgrip strength testing at baseline as part of the Women's Health and Aging Study. M…
Constant Hierarchic Patterns of Physical Functioning Across Seven Populations in Five Countries
This research was aimed at identifying critical steps in the decline in physical function that often parallels aging. Six basic and nine instrumental activities of daily living (ADLs) were classified into four domains of disability characterized by specific underlying physical impairment. The hierarchical order of this classification was verified in two random samples representative of the older home-dwelling population. The concordance level of disability and results of performance-based measures of physical function were also tested. Finally, the cross-cultural reliability of the model was verified in seven population-based samples of older persons living in five European countries. In ol…
Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies in >80 000 Subjects Identifies Multiple Loci for C-Reactive Protein Levels
Background— C-reactive protein (CRP) is a heritable marker of chronic inflammation that is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. We sought to identify genetic variants that are associated with CRP levels. Methods and Results— We performed a genome-wide association analysis of CRP in 66 185 participants from 15 population-based studies. We sought replication for the genome-wide significant and suggestive loci in a replication panel comprising 16 540 individuals from 10 independent studies. We found 18 genome-wide significant loci, and we provided evidence of replication for 8 of them. Our results confirm 7 previously known loci and introduce 11 novel loci that are implicated in p…