Energy cost of physical activities in healthy elderly women.
In recent studies, daily physical activity ratios (PARs) greater than the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization/United Nations University (FAO/WHO/UNU) reference value of 1.5 have been reported for elderly men and women. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a high PAR in elderly subjects can be explained by a higher energy cost of physical activities (EEact). To this end, 12 elderly women aged 69 to 82 years, completed physical activity diaries during a 2-day stay in a respiration chamber. From these diaries, total daily energy expenditure (TEE) in the calorimeter was estimated (TEEfac) using FAO/WHO/UNU PARs for physical activities and measured resting metabolic rate (RMR). TEEfac was 7.0 +/- 0.9 MJ/d (PAR, 1.35 +/- 0.06). TEE was also measured in the chamber (TEEcal) and was 8.3 +/- 1.3 MJ/d (PAR, 1.60 +/- 0.16). TEEfac was 14.8% +/- 8.1% lower than TEEcal. To investigate whether the underestimation of TEEcal was due to a higher EEact in the elderly women as compared with the FAO/WHO/UNU references, EEact of six specific activities ranging from sitting at rest to walking on a treadmill at self-chosen speed was measured with a ventilated-hood system. Individually measured PARs of the six activities were similar to FAO/WHO/UNU reference PARs. This study suggests that in elderly women a high TEEcal is not explained by EEact during nonstandardized physical activities performed at self-chosen speeds. Whether these results can be extrapolated to the free-living environment needs to be investigated further.
Visser
M
M
Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands.
van der Horst
A
A
de Groot
L C
LC
Deurenberg
P
P
van Staveren
W A
WA
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D002153:Calorimetry, Indirect; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000502:physiology*; D012015:Reference Standards; D014481:United States; D014944:World Health Organization