Quality of life and physical fitness in an 85-year-old population.
Since little is known about the very elderly population aged 80 years and older, we evaluated the association of quality of life (QoL) in an 85-year-old population with physical fitness measurements assessed at age 80 and 85 years. Two hundred seven individuals (90 males, 117 females) aged 85 years underwent the Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaires for QoL assessment and physical fitness measurements (handgrip strength, leg-extensor strength, one-leg standing time, stepping rate of legs, walking speed). In 85-year-olds, significant associations were found, by multiple regression analysis or logistic regression analysis, with adjustment for various influencing factors in QoL assessed by SF-36 with physical fitness measurements examined at the age of 85 and 80 years. Physical scales and scores in SF-36, such as physical functioning (PF), limitation in role functioning for physical reasons (role physical; RP), bodily pain (BP), and the physical component score (PCS) tended to be more tightly associated with fitness measurements than mental scales and scores such as limitation in role functioning for emotional reasons (role emotional; RE), and emotional well-being (mental health; MH), and mental component score (MCS). Three scales the general health perceptions (GH), the vitality (VT), and the social functioning (SF) consisting of both physical and mental components were associated with fitness, the extent being intermediate between physical scales and mental scales. Of the several physical fitness measurements, leg-extensor strength and the walking speed of 85-year-olds, and the stepping rate of 80-year-olds were most closely associated with QoL. In a very elderly population of 85- and 80-year-olds, significant associations were found between QoL by SF-36 and physical fitness measurements, suggesting that increases in the levels of physical fitness, even in the very elderly, can contribute to improvements in QoL.
Takata
Yutaka
Y
Division of General Internal Medicine, Kyushu Dental College, Manazuru 2-6-1, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu City 803-8580, Japan. yutaka@kyu-dent.ac.jp
Ansai
Toshihiro
T
Soh
Inho
I
Awano
Shuji
S
Yoshitake
Yutaka
Y
Kimura
Yasuo
Y
Sonoki
Kazuo
K
Kagiyama
Shuntaro
S
Yoshida
Akihiro
A
Nakamichi
Ikuo
I
Hamasaki
Tomoko
T
Torisu
Takehiro
T
Toyoshima
Kuniaki
K
Takehara
Tadamichi
T
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010809:Physical Fitness; D011788:Quality of Life