0000000000367942
AUTHOR
Erkki Alanen
Obesity History as a Predictor of Walking Limitation at Old Age*
Objective: To study whether walking limitation at old age is determined by obesity history. Research Methods and Procedures: In a retrospective longitudinal study based on a representative sample of the Finnish population of 55 years and older (2055 women and 1337 men), maximal walking speed, body mass, and body height were measured in a health examination. Walking limitation was defined as walking speed <1.2 m/s or difficulty in walking 0.5 km. Recalled height at 20 years of age and recalled weight at 20, 30, 40, and 50 years of age were recorded. Results: Subjects who had been obese at the age of 30, 40, or 50 years had almost a 4-fold higher risk of walking limitation compared to non-obe…
The relation between cycling time to exhaustion and anaerobic threshold.
This study investigated whether the anaerobic threshold (AnT) could be used to predict prolonged work capacity measured as cycling time to exhaustion (= endurance time) and which factors, in addition to relative exercise intensity, could explain variation in endurance time. Theoretical exercise intensities corresponding to certain endurance times were also calculated. The hyperbolic and exponential functions between cycling time and relative work rate (WR[%]), as well as between cycling time and relative oxygen uptake (VO2[%]) were fitted to the pooled data (n = 45) of 17 subjects. The WR(%) and VO2(%) were expressed as a percentage of the subject's own AnT- and maximum-values. At WR corres…
Effect of co-morbidity on the association of high body mass index with walking limitation among men and women aged 55 years and older.
Background and aims: Obesity among older persons is rapidly increasing, thus affecting their mobility negatively. The aim of this study was to examine the association of high body mass index (BMI) with walking limitation, and the effect of obesity-related diseases on this association. Methods: In a representative sample of the Finnish population of 55 years and older (2055 women and 1337 men), maximal walking speed, chronic diseases, and BMI were ascertained in a health examination. Walking limitation was defined as maximal walking speed of less than 1.2 m/s or difficulty in walking 500 meters. To analyze the effects of chronic conditions, smoking, marital status, and education on BMI class…
Hip fractures and femoral bone mineral density in male former elite athletes
We studied whether vigorous physical activity in young adulthood is associated with higher femoral bone density and lower risk of hip fracture at older age in men.A cohort of former male elite athletes (n=2147) and matched control subjects (n=1467) were studied for their leisure physical activity, and for fragility fractures at the hip (proximal femur) by Cox regression. Areal bone mineral densities (aBMD) at femoral neck and trochanter region were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in a subgroup of the former athletes (n=87; median age 59 years) and in a population-based control group (n=194) and compared by general linear models.After their active sporting careers, the former…
Testing equality of reliability and stability with simple linear constraints in multi-wave, multi-variable models
Data from a longitudinal study on school achievement were used to develop new methods for analysing reliability of measurements and stability of behaviour over a long time interval. The proposed method of analysis makes it possible to test hypotheses about equality constraints on reliability and stability. It is known that the use of negative variances for imaginary latent variables with equality constraints between structural parameters produces standardized variances for endogenous latent variables and quality constraints for coefficients of stability. Reparameterization of random errors in measurement models allows equality constraints to be set for coefficients of cross-sectional and of…
Muscle metabolic profile and oxygen transport capacity as determinants of aerobic and anaerobic thresholds
Aerobic and anaerobic thresholds determined by different methods in repeated exercise tests were correlated with cardiorespiratory variables and variables of muscle metabolic profile in 33 men aged 20–50 years. Aerobic threshold was determined from blood lactate, ventilation, and respiratory gas exchange by two methods (AerT1 and AerT2) and anaerobic threshold from venous lactate (AnTLa), from ventilation and gas exchange (AnTr) and by using the criterion of 4 mmol·l−1 of venous lactate (AnT4mmol). In addition to ordinary correlative analyses, applications of LISREL models were used. The 8 explanatory variables chosen for the regression analyses were height, relative heart volume, relative …
Self-Rated Health and Associated Factors Among Men of Different Ages
The connections of certain clinico-physiological indicators of health state, chronic diseases, felt symptoms, and psychic well-being with self-rated health were studied among men of different ages as a part of the more extensive research project Jyväskylä Studies on Functional Aging. Study population was selected by using systematic random sampling among men aged 31 to 35, 51 to 55 and 71 to 75 years in the city of Jyväskylä. Log-linear and logit models as well as regression and structural equation models within the framework of LISREL were used as methods of analysis. The associations between general self-rated health and the explanative variables were different in different age groups: In…
A note on alternative parameterizations of a model for evaluating agreement between two tests.
The agreement between two competing tests which purport to measure the same trait is a common concern in test development. In this paper three alternative parameterizations of the measurement model useful in this context are presented. Both one-factor and two-factor approaches are applied. Lord's classic example, where the main problem is to investigate whether time limits represent an extra speed component in a vocabulary test, is used to illustrate the ideas.